Apocalypse
by Windstrider97
Summary: Elsa having lived on her own in the streets of New York City hears word of an oncoming threat of a disease that transforms regular men into what they call "the infected". Modern/zombie Elsanna AU.
1. Day 1

**A/N: ...It's bee a while hasn't it? Yeahhh, I could tell you how interesting my summer was or how difficult my schooling situation has been, but, I'm just going to say: I'm starting my writing up again and I wrote out this crazy idea I had while watching the Walking Dead game. I hope you all enjoy this new story! - Windstrider **

It was cliché of course but Elsa couldn't remember what it was like before the infected came.

Two years had passed since the virus had broken out and all beyond that was ruined memory. Elsa, fortunately, had been one of the few lucky survivors who had nothing much to on in her life she was unknowingly ready for what was to come. Her mother and father had died in a car accident seven years before the apocalypse swept the world and they left their daughter nothing at 15 years old. No home, no extended family, no food…

She had resulted in fleeing the shelter home and living in a dark alleyway where rats ran free and the smoky discharge from the homes above clouded through the narrow back way. In the night, the puddles of dripping condensation from the air conditioners above resembled ink when they collected together on the ground. She would oftentimes go out of her way to avoid them for she thought that the black water would stick on her tattered shoes. Her tent, which was surprisingly warm, was where she stayed every night. She used a beat up hoodie as her pillow a blanket to keep her warm. In the winter, however, a blanket could only do so much. Her living conditions were very unsanitary, and for the first few years it was hard for her in terms of sickness. She was oftentimes Ill, however her voice stayed strong. She could've turned to a shelter, but being the ever strong willed girl she was, she stayed right where she was and endured the sicknesses as they came. She was fortunate enough to not catch a serious illness for the first few years. By the time she turned 19, she was basically immune.

She had been getting by on singing at a street corner for money. All the woman had was her voice. On a good day, Elsa made almost fifty dollars a day, using that money to buy herself food and fresh water. She had been surviving off the faith that her voice would hold. Having taught herself to sing, she learned to live in her state of poverty.

There was a reason why no one came to the alleyway to steal what they could from the woman (and they might as well could've). Elsa had earned enough money - eating minimal food and little water for almost a month's time - in order to buy a gun. It was a small glock with a silver trigger. For another month, Elsa ate limited food and water to buy bullets. She always carried the glock with her, hidden underneath her grey hoodie she wore every day, an extra magazine of bullets in her pocket.

She had prepared and was always ready for anything that could happen in the city, however, Elsa didn't hear about the infected before it was too late.

As she was walking down the street to her regular spot on the street corner where she sang, she had overheard a conversation going on between two women who were standing by a lamppost nearby.

"It was all over the news last night." said the woman to her friend. Elsa had approached the two and silently sat down on the curb with her hood over her head to listen very carefully as she had learned to do, "The virus is spreading so fast it's moving through entire states within a day's time."

"They're starting to call them _the infected_ now." The other woman put in, lowering her voice to a soft whisper as if she didn't want anyone to hear their discussion, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to try my chances with taking my family and flying to Europe."

Elsa heard the hushed words and had begun to stiffen as questions presented themselves in her mind.

What were the infected?

A virus?

Why was the woman talking about fleeing the country?

Was this threat so bad that they actually had to leave?

And then there came the question that crashed down on her all at once: Were the infected similar to those creatures in comics and seen on the TV's in store windows she had watched? She took a moment to think about the strange name before it actually hit her.

Zombies?

As the women moved on from their spot to walk down the sidewalk, Elsa slowly turned her head and looked after them, desperately wishing to ask them more. She then decided to wait until after midday to ask someone about what was going on.

When she was finally able to get a hold of someone who would be willing to explain the coming threat, a feeling of dread washed over her as the man spoke.

Something called The T-virus had been unintentionally let loose from a science lab in California. When it came in contact with the human bloodstream, the person was instantly forced into a state where their body was put under a fast process of decay until they were completely deceased. But even then, they remained alive, being controlled by the viruses' influence on the brain. What the virus wanted was flesh from other humans and so through the body it had taken a hold of, the parasite spread its disease through a bite. Anyone near an infected person would be at risk of contamination. Since the body was already dead and decayed, simple gunfire wouldn't and couldn't stop them unless the gunfire hit the almost indestructible organisms in the head.

The authorities failed to keep the growing virus quarantined and it spread unfaltering through towns, through cities, through burrows and through country houses. The more people that became infected, the more it got out of hand, the less the authorities tried to stop fighting it, and the more people ran for their lives. The virus had already spread its way halfway across the U.S. and was moving faster every day.

"The last reported sighting of an infected was just a few hours ago in Illinois." the man who was giving Elsa the information said softly, "A lot of us are leavin'. I suggest you do the same." And then he walked away, leaving Elsa standing alone at her corner. The woman instantly began to pace with her pouch full of money clenched in her right hand, her left hand running through her mane of blonde hair. Her mind was racing. Nothing like this was ever heard of before. It was impossible! She thought that zombies only existed in stores and comic books she found on the street.

She had to do something.

Elsa immediately went back to her tent and began going through the money she had saved (about 130 dollars) and she pulled out her gun, checking the clip compartment to see if it was filled. She pulled the small boxes of bullets out, set them in a small backpack she had found on the street, and packed as much food as she could in there. Once she had everything packed tightly inside the pack, Elsa crawled out of the tent and began to take it down. She put her blanket in the middle of the rolled up tent and was immediately on her way without a second thought. She began thinking of places to go as she walked through the downtown area of New York, however, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that there weren't many places she could go that would keep her safe for long. She couldn't go east for obvious reasons, but she couldn't go west due to the fact she would run into the ocean. There was no hope of stowing away aboard a plane or boat out of the country and there was no hope going anywhere without the threat of the diseased. Traveling north into Canada would prove useless soon since the virus would only spread upwards there once the states were completely infested.

Then she began to think of the pros and cons of living in a place like Canada...

The pros, she thought, were that if it got cold enough, the zombies would freeze since they have no body heat due to their corpse-like state. If the zombie's didn't freeze, it would be much harder to walk through the snow than solid ground to get to Elsa if she needed to escape.

A major con would be that it would be slow going for Elsa if she had to move through the country on foot. She would be cold. She would lack the clothes to keep her warm. Although New York could get freezing cold in the wintertime, she had found that the heat that the vents gave off above and around the alleyway she slept in kept her decently warm. She would have no warmth in the rugged terrain. She only had so much stamina, and she didn't know how long she could go before she had to stop. There would be little food up there if she had to hunt and she didn't know how to skin an animal once she caught one. She didn't know how to make a fire. If she was attacked by a wild animal she didn't know how to protect herself. She didn't know how to dress wounds…She knew nothing about survival in the wilderness…

Elsa halted in the streets then and fell silent in her thought. The quiet dripping from the dirty pipes resonated throughout the space in a quiet echo.

She had no choice.

If she stayed in the city a moment longer, the more likely she would get caught up in the chaos and god only knew what would happen then. Disease spreads much faster in a place like New York.

As she made her way out of the city, walking along the side of roads, and watching the traffic get backed up progressively more as the day went on. More people were fleeing the city and everyone was trying to get out in the same direction. She moved out of the Manhattan area in the following days and continued on her way upwards. The more rocky the ground became and the less the sun shone in the sky.

Elsa had managed to avoid the creatures as well as she could throughout the days in which the infected swept through New York and the other states around it. She had made her way through New York and had moved up through Vermont skimming the boarder of Canada. It was when she was walking through a dense forest, humming lightly to herself when she heard an infected for the first time.

A soft moan came from the distance. It was painful sounding, stopping only a few times to make way for stutters and the sharp tick of teeth snapping together. The woman paused and hid behind a tree instinctively as she heard more approaching on top of the one she had heard. Soon an entire chorus of moans filled the forest, and the creatures approached her from the west. All Elsa could see to the east was more dense forest with no way out. She pulled out her compass (which she had stolen shamefully from an abandoned supply shop) and hastily turned it so that the needle pointed north.

She had shut her eyes and had run then. The infected pursued, but pure adrenaline and fear gave her the strength to run for about two miles before she finally had to stop. The paranoia set in soon after and the loneliness reigned over all other emotion. It was a near impossible adjustment to a life of constant running, constant fear of being closed in by monsters who knew nothing of what it was like to be human again.

For two years Elsa ran. She moved her way through Montreal, toughing the harsh terrain of the landscapes, moving through dense forests. She found a way around lakes and over rocky hills and frozen streams. As she passed through Ontario and Manitoba, She grew adjusted to the cold and soon she forgot what it was like to not have her breath fog in front of her face whenever she exhaled. She adjusted to outdoor life and survived by learning the basics on her own. She always had a knife on her belt and her glock on the other side of it, always loaded. She learned the best ways to hunt and how to find food for herself. She stayed clear of all berries except anything that looked like wild raspberries.

A fire was mandatory every night and she figured out how to start one herself about two weeks into her travel. She always found high ground to sleep on and in the freezing rain of the tundra she would find protection – it wasn't much, but it was protection- by lifting her hoodie over her head.

For two years she survived on her own. She ran into other survivors here and there, but unfortunately they all betrayed her in the end. Soon, after putting her trust in too many people and being let down every time, she reached a point in which she trusted no one. Nothing was able to bring peace to Elsa except for the quiet of the forest, and her singing. Her voice could be heard through the forest on a good day and the sounds that produced were so wonderful that even the birds stopped to listen.

For two years she moved onward to the North, never faltering, never stopping, never weakening.

She couldn't remember a time when she didn't have to constantly be wary of a race of infected people attacking her at every turn.

Elsa had chosen to sit by the fire in a small, rocky area, her tent set up underneath a ledge of stone, keeping it protected from the freezing rain that occasionally fell in the night without warning. She leaned against the cool stone, writing in a journal that she had found lying on the road about a month ago. Half of it was already scribbled in with almost illegible writing with numerous misspellings, but for the second half, Elsa had begun to fill it with her beautiful cursive handwriting. She wrote on the pages her wishes, her hopes, and her thoughts. Some pages were tear stained while other pages were unintentionally splattered with blood.

Elsa tilted her head and continued to write of the day's events as night fell over the horizon. The grey sky became progressively darker and Elsa's senses heightened. The night was the time to be cautious in everything one did.

Relaxing herself with effort, Elsa leaned against the stone wall more and continued to write, recounting the strange story about how she caught her meal of rabbit that day...

Elsa's eyes rose to the bush in front of her moments before it rustled.

In an instant Elsa pulled out her glock, slammed her journal shut, pointed it at the bush and hissed ferociously, "Who's there?"

She hadn't heard moaning, (a person could hear the moaning from about 15 feet away if the zombie is quiet) so she assumed that whatever was behind the bush was either a very quiet animal, or a human. And by the rustle of the bush, Elsa could tell it wasn't an animal. A human was no less threatening than the infected. Elsa's life and her things were at risk. She knew if she pulled the trigger in her defense -if there were others with the one she was shooting at – she would force the others to fire at her immediately in retaliation. She didn't want to risk pulling the trigger and drawing the infected towards her with the sound of a gunshot so she stood there rigidly, still as stone, her ice blue eyes piercing through the darkness, looking for any sign of human presence.

"Who's there?" Elsa repeated, her voice a low growl, "If you don't show yourself, I'm going to shoot and draw all the infected within a mile's radius towards us. Now show yourself!"

There was a long pause as she fell silent, her jaw clenched painfully in her stress.

The bush moved slightly again, and the woman could see a faint outline of a body hidden underneath the leaves. She took a step forward and flicked the gun at the silhouette in an effort to intimidate the person hidden.

"D-don't shoot me." came a small, shivering voice.

Elsa's eyes widened in slight surprise as the dark shape shifted, then straightened and a head popped out from the bush. The woman who had managed to sneak up on Elsa held up her hands in surrender, her green eyes wide and pleading.

"Don't shoot me," repeated the woman, "I'm only j-just…I'm just passing by."

"Well move along then." Elsa snapped, refusing to lower her gun, "Do you have anyone with you?"

"No." the woman hesitated the moved clumsily out from the bush and stepped in front of Elsa, standing with her hands still raised in surrender,"Do you?"

"No." Elsa replied, her eyes lowering to examine the girl before her.

She was almost as tall as Elsa herself and about the same size in weight. Both girls were dangerously malnourished looking with dark circles under their eyes but the redhead looked slightly more exhausted due to her obvious exhausted state. She had a head of messy red hair that stuck out in most places like she had tried to get sleep, but was woken up abruptly with a bedhead she wasn't able to fix. Her bright, watery green eyes matched her ripped green shirt and the knees of her jeans were caked with mud and dirt. Shivering with cold and her breath puffing in front of her face, Anna lowered her raised arms to wrap around herself in an effort to keep herself warm.

"M-my name is Anna." She said with a violent shiver, "I saw you walking across the lake earlier and I decided to follow you."

Elsa's lips pressed together in apprehension at this statement.

"A-and I just caught up with you now actually." The girl's eyes flicked from Elsa's face to the roaring fire, "Please," she said, "May I please stay by the fire for a little while? I've been walking out here for almost a week without any warmth or protection I've been rained on, chased by those…things, I've been threatened by other groups of survivors and I haven't eaten or slept at all."

Elsa didn't reply, her threatening stance and expression unchanging.

"Please." The woman said again, swaying on her feet as if she were seconds away from passing out from her extreme exhaustion, "I'm on my last leg here. I know it's a lot to ask from a stranger, but I'm so cold I can't remember what it feels like to not have numb fingers!"

Elsa continued to remain still as the woman shivered before her, watching her and observing the way that Anna wished to get closer to the flames that flickered only a few feet away.

Elsa evaluated the decision in her mind for a few moments. If she let this woman stay, there would be the risk of her betraying Elsa and stealing something from her meager supply of survival essentials. Everything in her tent was necessary to her survival and if she had one thing stolen from her supplies, she might as well be dead. She had been stolen from before by other survivors and she wasn't about to willingly allow another person into her group again without threatening them first, no matter who they were or what they looked like. Elsa moved forward until she stood very close to the shorter woman. Anna let her eyes drop in submission and Elsa lifted her gun, resting the tip against the girl's head. The woman's shivering gasps ceased as she held her breath, the cold end of the gun pressing against her temple.

"You put up a good act." Elsa said, experimenting to see if the cute redhead was bluffing, "Not sure if I believe you entirely."

The fear was evident in Anna's eyes and suddenly Elsa received a small jolt of pity. She glared at Anna for a few more moments before she sighed tiredly and lowered the gun from Anna's head. Putting the glock on her belt she paused, then reluctantly gestured toward the fire. Anna looked at her incredulously for a minute, her wide eyes flicking from Elsa's face to the fire back to her face. Only when Elsa gestured again did Anna move. She crossed the space between her and the fire in seconds and crouched in front of it, her hands with fingers spread held out against the flames. Elsa could see the genuine emotion on the woman's face as her tense demeanor melted instantly in her relief.

Elsa sat down heavily on the other side of the fire, watching her, observing her. After a few moments of intense relief, Anna sighed loudly, her shoulders sagging, her shivering ceasing.

Then there was a tense silence between the two in which Anna became slightly awkward under the other woman's cruel stare. The redhead hugged her knees and fought eye contact with the other woman for a while. It was evident that this blonde haired woman didn't want her there, Anna could feel it by the way she was glaring at her. But at the same time she seemed desperately lonely. Anna could tell by the expertly hidden weakness in her eyes.

"W-what's your name?" Anna asked quietly.

"Elsa." The blonde answered, looking her over once again, "You're not armed are you?"

"If I was, would I tell you?" Anna giggled.

Elsa blinked and shifted suddenly upon hearing the pleasant sound of laughter for the first time in years. Anna's shoulder's bounced slightly as her chuckle died down and her eyes shone. Anna scooted closer still to the fire that sparked and stuttered steadily, it's amber sparks flying upwards though a trail of smoke into the night.

"I know for a fact that you're definitely armed." Anna giggled and a small smile tugged at Elsa's lips as Anna pointed to the glock on Elsa's belt. Smiling felt so foreign to Elsa

"So, what's your story?" Anna asked politely, "Everyone I've run into has a story."

"Are you sure that no one is following you?" Elsa asked, looking behind the girl.

"You're distracted aren't you?" Anna said, tilting her head, "Want me to tell you my story first? I mean, since I'm gonna be here for tonight we might as well get to know each other."

"I really hope you don't take this too personally." Elsa mumbled, lifting her hands to crack her knuckles nervously, "But you're not going to stay for very long, so you might as well keep your mouth shut."

"Y-you could've put it a bit kinder." Anna said, looking slightly hurt, "I mean, I understand that it would be hard for you to trust anyone. It's hard for me to trust you, but you've been traveling alone for hours…I figured that you were alone by the way you didn't seem to be looking or waiting for anyone."

Elsa looked into Anna's eyes and saw the honesty behind them. Either she was an exceptional liar or she was being truthful.

"I'm no threat to you, Elsa." The younger woman said, honesty coating her words once more, "I'm not armed, I'm not with anyone, I'm not very strong." She lifted her arm and flexed for Elsa to see and, indeed, she wasn't very strong looking at all, "I'm worn down and scared…"

Elsa's eyes fell to the flames where they stayed, listening carefully to the woman who was her first company in years that actually, somehow, made her feel comfortable. The girl's voice was soft and soothing, warm and light. It put Elsa to rest and no matter how hard she tried to keep her guard up, she was just so tired, and this was the first conversation she had in years so she decided to let her guard down.

"Okay then." Elsa sighed, resting her head in her hand, "what's your story then if you're so eager to talk."

The redhead's eyes lit up with excitement and she began speaking quickly in almost a ramble.

"Well, once I heard news of the monsters coming up through Canada I told my dad that we had to leave our country house in Manitoba. I mean, we had lived there out whole lives and we had just been getting over the death of my mom…" she paused, her shoulders slumping, "I wanted to leave, but my dad insisted we stay. He turned off the radio and said that we could survive anything together. We could hold our own in our house until the epidemic died down but I had listened to the radio more than my dad. These infected people don't get better. Once they're dead, they're dead and there's nothing that can bring them back. My dad didn't realize that before it was too late. I begged him to leave when they came but he said that he lived there his whole life and he wasn't about to leave because of some stupid sick people…"

Elsa tilted her head slightly as she saw the immense pain in Anna's eyes. She took a moment to think before she began again, "He…didn't make it out."

Elsa lowered her head and sighed, "I'm sorry."

Anna immediately perked up, "I mean, it's not your fault! There's no need to be sorry! These things just happen sometimes and…I'm sure everyone else is going through a rough time too! These are tough times and I bet everyone has a tragic story."

"It's the end of the world." Elsa said, lifting her eyes to look at Anna steadily, "The entire population has fallen to tragedy."

Anna fell silent, biting her bottom lip nervously. Elsa shifted in her seat, then stood and stretched her arms above her head, making a slight groaning noise. She turned to her tent, pacing to it and disappearing inside for a few moments. Anna thrummed her fingers on the cool stone, waiting for the blonde to return. Elsa poked her head out from the tent flap and the redhead couldn't help but notice how cute the woman seemed. As Elsa stepped into full view, Anna saw that Elsa was carrying with her four pieces of beef jerky.

"It's not much," Elsa said holding out the two biggest pieces, "But it's something to chew."

Anna, whos eyes had set alight with desire as soon as she saw the jerky immediately grabbed the pieces and instantly began to eat. Elsa sat down facing her, and watched with amusement as Anna devoured the pieces in seconds. As soon as she had eaten, Anna let out a massive sigh and she let her head droop with relief.

Elsa remained silent as she nibbled on the rest of the jerky.

Anna sighed once more before lifting her head and looking at Elsa, smiling happily, "Thank you!" she said.

Elsa nodded and continued to chew on her jerky. Then there was a moment of silence in which Anna couldn't tear her eyes away from the other piece of meat in Elsa's hand. Elsa's eyes shifted from the fire to Anna. She tried to make eye contact with the younger woman but failed to succeed seeing as how she was completely transfixed on the jerky in Elsa's hand.

"You gonna finish that?" Anna asked nervously.

Elsa frowned, swallowed, then handed over the rest of the pieces. Anna grabbed them and chewed the pieces slower than the one's before in order to satisfy Elsa while mumbling, "Thank you! Thank you!"

The blonde nodded silently and waited patiently for Anna to finish before speaking, "I already ate a rabbit earlier, it's…the least I could do for you." Anna turned towards Elsa and scooted closer, hugging her knees and smiling shyly.

"Would you mind telling me what your story is?" Anna asked. Elsa immediately shook her head and glared at Anna sternly. The redhead understood and nodded her head before she let her eyes drop back to the fire. A few moments of silence later, Elsa noticed Anna's head bobbing up and down as she fought the urge to fall asleep next to the warm fire. The blonde cleared her throat and Anna blinked, lifting a hand to rub her eye, yawing tiredly.

"Would you like to sleep with me in my tent?" mumbled Elsa.

"WELL!" Anna almost shrieked, "WELL THEN! Uhm, I mean, if you insist! You're a gorgeous girl and all, but I mean, that's going a bit fast don't you think? We, uh, we just met and, uh, uhm, yeah…"

Elsa stared at the other woman incredulously as Anna sat ridged with nervousness…

"Not that kind of sleep." Elsa sighed, lifting a hand to run her fingers through her hair, "Jesus Christ."

"Sorry!" Anna apologized, scooting a bit closer, "Sorry! I misunderstood! Uhm, yes! I would love to sleep in your tent with you!"

Elsa smiled slightly and then gestured towards the small sleeping area. Anna looked at her momentarily before she stood sleepily and almost stumbled on her way over to the tent. Elsa stood, then kicked a bit of dust onto the flames until they were extinguished, then followed Anna from behind. The redhead paused to look over her shoulder at the approaching woman before she smiled sweetly then lifted the tent flap and moved in clumsily, her foot catching on the blanket.

"Careful." Elsa murmured putting a hand on Anna's back and assisting her inside. Anna shyly plopped down in one corner of the dimly lit tent and Elsa crawled in after her, sitting down atop the blanket she slept with every night. The tent was small and had room for about one person; Anna felt slightly uncomfortable as Elsa settled down and looked at her once more. The two looked at each other for a few moments before Anna said awkwardly, "Uhm…Thank you again."

"Hmm," Elsa hummed, then her face fell, "I want to tell you something," her eyes narrowed as the doubts came back to her collectively. She got onto her knees and crawled up to Anna, placing one hand on the gun that rested on her belt, "I'm a very light sleeper."

Anna's eyes widened and Elsa's narrowed into slits.

"You so much as take one step outside that tent and I'll put a bullet right through the back of your skull," Elsa hissed, "you hear me?"

A shiver tremored through Anna's body and she nodded weakly in understanding. Elsa nodded once in reply and moved back onto her blanket. She sighed as she lifted it, then nestled underneath, resting her head on the balled up jacket, the zipper trail pressing into her cheek. She knew an indent would be there in the morning but she didn't care.

She could hear Anna shifting nervously in the corner for a few minutes before the younger woman eventually gave way into exhaustion. The redhead's steady breathing sounded and Elsa finally let her guard down, slowly letting her eyes shut. She let herself over to the oblivion of sleep.


	2. Day 2

Elsa awoke to light birdsong and the slight sting of the morning sunlight resting on her tired eyes. She stirred where she had slept soundlessly all night and prepared herself for the unpleasantness of having to step out from under her warm blanket into the cold, harsh air of the forest outside. Opening her eyes slowly, Elsa let out a large sigh that shifted her entire body. uncurling from her sleeping position, she lifted her head from her makeshift pillow, placing her hand on her cheek to feel the zipper's indent in her skin. She sat up, shivered, then moved the blanket off of her legs and began to fold it neatly for travel.

When movement stirred at the other end of the tent, Elsa instantly and involuntarily pulled her gun out and her pointer finger pressed tensely against the trigger. She stopped herself as she remembered the events of the night before. It all foggily came back to her as she woke up a bit more. Elsa grumbled to herself about how she should've pulled the trigger, put her gun away and rolled up her blanket, setting it aside. As she waited for the redhead to get up, Elsa narrowed her eyes and thrummed her fingers against the cool earth below her.

Anna eventually, slowly sat up and blinked at Elsa for a moment before laying back down and curling up, facing away from the other woman.

"You do such a good job impersonating those monsters out there that I almost shot you in the face." Elsa said, smiling a bit to herself.

"Mph," Anna mumbled, half asleep, "Yeah? Well, I'd like to see ya try."

Elsa tilted her head, in confusion to Anna's sleepy comment, then sighed sleepily, struggling to get to her feet. She stood unsteadily, stretching her arms above her head, a small yawn following. She kicked Anna in the side and rolled her eyes as Anna groaned loudly in protest.

"You need to go." Elsa mumbled as she continued to wait impatiently for Anna to get up.

"What? No I don't!" Anna replied, her words slurred.

"If you think you're staying, you're very wrong." Elsa said quickly, "Now get your ass up and get out of here."

At this, Anna sat up once more pausing for a minute to blink and rub her eyes.

"I've got nowhere to go!" Anna continued, blinking a few times and fixing Elsa with a sleepy stare, "I mean, I'm not going to be that much of a problem! I know how to shoot a gun, I can carry my own weight…"

"If you can do those two things, you'll be fine on your own." Elsa replied curtly.

"But the thing is," Anna continued, "If you have another person with you, the less likely you would get killed. I'll cover you if we get surrounded, I'll help you look and search for food. I can provide…I dunno…conversation?" at this point Anna was just trying to find an excuse to stay with the beautiful blonde, "Anything is better than going out there alone again."

"I like being alone." Elsa said with that same twinge of expertly hidden weakness.

"I don't." Anna replied, scooting closer to Elsa, "I know you might like to be alone, but I don't know how to do anything to keep myself alive. I don't know how to make a fire, or hunt, or anything like that! All I know is that if you teach me, things could get a lot easier for you…for us."

"There is no us." Elsa snapped, turning and throwing back the tent flap storming outside into the freezing cold of the tundra morning, "I already helped you, now just get out of here."

Anna stumbled out into the cold after her and immediately wrapped her arms around herself, "I don't know where to go from here!" she pleaded.

"Not my problem." Elsa sighed.

"Please let me come with you, Elsa!" Anna begged.

Elsa looked into Anna's green eyes, seeing the desperation behind them and weakened for a moment.

"…No." said the older woman, crossing her arms and glaring at Anna who had begun to tear up, "Just get out of here."

She moved past Anna who didn't turn around to say anything more. Elsa, within a few moments, took down her tent and picked up her backpack with her meager supplies rattling inside. She slid on her hoodie and pulled out her compass from the pocket, turning it in the direction of the north. She hesitated, looking over her shoulder to see Anna still standing there, facing away from her, shivering weakly in the cold.

Elsa suddenly had second thoughts. The girl was obviously helpless on her own and seeing how she was last night, how desperate she became, she wouldn't be able to last long. Elsa's lips parted slightly as she thought for a moment, the words, "you can come with me" on the tip of her tongue. She held it back and wrenched her head away, facing the north once more before heading off and disappearing behind the bushes.

As soon as Anna was sure Elsa was gone and out of hearing distance she immediately began to move in the direction in which the blonde woman had gone. Determined to stay with the only person who gave her food and shelter – so unlike all the other survivors she had found and received no help from– Anna followed the sound of Elsa's footsteps tapping lightly against the ground.

Within the next few minutes, there were several instances in which Elsa felt like she was being watched. She had suspected that Anna would follow her again and she was more than prepared to pull the gun out if she stubborn redhead presented herself and kept nagging Elsa to come along. She was just another mouth to feed, one more worry. Elsa had enough to worry about. She didn't need another one.

As Elsa moved on through the forest, keeping an eye and an ear out, she sighed. There hadn't been that feeling of someone watching her from behind for a while so, after a few moment of listening and looking over her shoulder warily to make sure no one was there, Elsa took a breath and began to sing.

From behind the bushes a ways off, Anna's eyes widened in surprise to hear the hypnotic sound. She stepped forwards and found an opening among the bushes in which she remained expertly hidden, able to hear the song clearer. Elsa was singing a comforting, lulling song that Anna didn't recognize, but it sounded familiar somehow. Her eyes half closed, for the sound that the woman was making was slightly hypnotic in its soft, soothing tones.

Elsa found relief then as she breathed in deeply and let it out slowly in song. Her step lightened and her shoulders set back slightly from their normal hunch. Elsa acknowledged the cleanliness of the crisp air about her and she continued on her way with her head held high in song.

It was about a few hours before Elsa stopped singing. Anna had managed to follow her undetected for the entirety of the way, although it was massively difficult due to her desire just to lay down and rest, listening to the woman's voice. The sun had reached its peak in the sky and once Elsa noticed this, she halted in her tracks, looking around the area for something. She lowered her head to look at the ground, narrowing her eyes, observing it carefully for any sign of tracks. As she suspected there were a few dear tracks imprinted in the muddy snow and they looked like they were going east. Elsa shouldered her backpack, reached down, sticking her hand up under her pant leg, and unsheathing a concealed hunting knife. She grabbed it by the hilt and checked the blade…then she turned towards the nearest tree and dug the blade into its side, finding a foothold and climbing her way up to a low hanging branch.

She hoisted herself atop it and settled down with her back against the trunk of the tree, her legs hanging over each side of the branch. Anna watched as Elsa rested her head against the rough bark of the tree and looked up at the midday sky through the branches above, plaintive in her silence.

Anna went to sit down silently behind a group of bushes but ended up sitting down in a pile of ice and snow. She immediately jumped a bit and tried not to squeal. Elsa's head whipped round in the direction of the strangled noise and her sharp eyes pierced through the foliage below trying to pick out what had made the noise among the leaves. Anna remained perfectly still, her ass still encased in ice and snow that was melting into her pants… After a few moments of Elsa looking almost directly at her, the blonde looked away and Anna was free to move herself free of the ice.

Anna sat down on a much dryer patch of grass and bit her lip as the stinging pain in her ass seemed all the more evident once her bottom pressed against the rough ground.

"I know you're down there." Elsa called from above and Anna instantly froze.

Elsa watched as Anna remained completely still for a long amount of time, biting her lip, completely tense. The blonde woman sighed tiredly and called again, "I should've known you would've followed me out here. Just come out and get up here."

Anna, obeying immediately, waddled out shamefully from the bushes and climbed the tree with ease. Elsa made room for the other girl on the branch above and took Anna's hand, helping her up and making sure she was comfortably sitting in front of her before glaring at her angrily.

"S-sorry." Anna mumbled, playing absentmindedly with her fingers.

"I told you to leave." Elsa snapped, "Why didn't you just leave?"

"For many reasons!" Anna answered, crossing her arms, "I want to be with you!" she paused for a moment, letting the words she had said sink in, "I mean, I don't want to…uhm…be with WITH you per say but I mean I want to travel with you. I want to help you. I want to do it for myself and for you, because you look like someone who's been lonely her whole life and needs company but is too stubborn and strong willed to admit it!"

As Anna babbled, Elsa leaned back against the tree again, her legs swinging back and forth with impatience. As soon as the redhead had finished what she had wanted to say, Elsa shut her eyes and remained silent for a few minutes in which Anna grew slightly uncomfortable.

"…We're going to get a few things straight here." Elsa said and Anna sat up slightly, anticipating Elsa's answer as to whether she could stay or not, "If you're going to be with me, there's going to be few ground rules we have to set up."

"Anything." Anna said her round eyes shining.

Elsa frowned at her excited, child-like expression before continuing, "One: When I say no talking, there will be NO talking whatsoever. Two: You so much as take anything out of my supply store without asking I'm going to put a bullet right through your head. Three: You're not going to cry for any reason whatsoever. Four-"

"There's a lot of rules…" Anna interjected.

Elsa glared, "FOUR…there will be no interrupting when I'm talking."

Anna's shoulders hunched slightly and she lowered her eyes in submission. Elsa sighed tiredly like she did so often and she rested her head back against the tree, mumbling, "Can't believe you."

Anna winced slightly at her words, then moved so that she was sitting on the branch, facing away from Elsa, looking off into the distance. Both women sat in silence for only a few short minutes before questions began rushing to Anna's mind. She knew if she said a word Elsa would get angry with her, but she had to know just one thing…just one small thing.

"Why are we up here?" Anna asked and even before she could finish her question Elsa groaned and rolled her eyes.

"I'm hunting." The blonde replied curtly, "I saw deer tracks right there," she pointed to the ground, "and the things are everywhere up here so we might as well just sit here a while and try our luck."

Anna nodded, then looked out through the forest, her neck craning in order to see through the trees. She continued to stare for a long while, Elsa looking at her strangely from the corner of her eye as she peered halfheartedly through the bushes, searching for any sign of animal or bird.

Being the impatient girl she was, Anna rocked back and forth where she was sitting and thrummed her fingers against the branch below.

"The deer will see you." Elsa grumbled, "You need to stay perfectly still."

Anna froze then, hooking her legs behind her on the tree and leaning forward, laying her head down on her arms. Elsa looked down at her curiously and sighed as Anna closed her eyes and began to rest. Elsa thought about doing the same for herself but she decided against it.

"If you fall asleep I won't catch you if you fall off of the branch." said Elsa.

Anna opened one eye to look at Elsa innocently for a few seconds before she closed it again and readjusted herself on the branch in a more comfortable position. Elsa lifted her head to look in the distance once more. She wasn't used to having anyone with her and, therefore, she felt slightly off…

The two settled down completely after a few minutes and fell into a sleepy state of unfamiliar comfort. Elsa's eyes slowly began to shut in her exhaustion and Anna fell asleep in seconds. The blonde looked down to watch the steady rise and fall of the woman's back and narrowed her eyes in suppressed hatred. As she sat there, her mind began to wander, and she began to deal with her feeling for this new person in her life.

She had never once had a friend in her life. Not one person had come up to her on the streets of New York, one of the most populated cities in America, and had talked to her. No one had ever stopped her to ask if she needed any help. No one ever noticed her for anything she did, even though she was on the street singing every day. By the time she reached 18 she gave up the thought of ever getting a job. And she wasn't about to accept some job offered to her out of pity. She was so strong willed that she wouldn't accept the slightest bit of help. She wouldn't resort to begging. No way. She would get by on her own, with her own voice, and with her own mental stability.

And now that she had someone with her…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a moan.

"Fuck" Elsa groaned and her body tensed up completely as she heard another moan, echoing the first. The two moans faded in from the distance and got progressively closer with each drawn out second of time in which Elsa's heart began to race in her growing panic.

"Anna." Elsa hissed, reaching out to shake Anna's shoulder, "ANNA!"

The redhead stirred sleepily and lifted her head to look up at Elsa, smiling, "Yes?"

"They're coming, shut up!" Elsa whispered hoarsely.

Anna's eyes snapped open and she instantly forced herself awake as soon as she registered the grating sound of the zombie's approaching from below. She looked up into Elsa's ice blue eyes, pleadingly, asking her silently what they should do. The stability in the other woman's eyes was almost alarming and it made Anna feel somewhat better. Elsa seemed like she was completely relaxed although every muscle in Elsa's taunt body was tense with fright.

Anna had no idea what to do. She had never been in a situation in which she couldn't run for her life from the infected. She was stuck in a tree with no way down. She instantly began to panic as soon as she looked away from Elsa and down at the approaching monsters. The two infected seemed to be very old. One was missing an arm, and another was missing a part of its stomach, entrails poking out from the incision in the middle and dripping with excess, rotting bodily fluids, black and contaminated with the virus.

Elsa's finger hooked under a piece of bark, clinging to it in terror. Anna's back began to heave and her ragged breath became louder. Elsa's head whipped towards her and she narrowed her eyes, warning Anna to calm down or else there would be consequences if they got out of there alive.

The older woman looked back down at the two zombies who plodded up to the base of the tree and looked up at them, their jaws hanging slack and their eyes, blank and lifeless, staring up at them with an inhuman hunger.

"There's only two." Elsa whispered to Anna who was clinging to the tree as tightly as she could with both her arms and legs, "If you want to stay with me I want you to learn how to do something." She reached out a shaking hand and took Anna's chin with her pointer finger and thumb, forcing her head up to look into Elsa's eyes, "What you're going to do first is calm yourself."

Anna's breath still went on raggedly and Elsa gripped her chin tighter, "You need to calm down, Anna. We're going to get out of this if you do your part. Focus on me." Anna bit her lip so hard it hurt, but she continued to look at Elsa, her cool, blue eyes piercing into hers and forcing her to look at nothing else. Elsa eye wrestled Anna, struggling to hold her attention… Anna's pounding heart slowed as she stared into Elsa's reassuring gaze and eventually, her breathing returned to normal. Elsa let go of Anna's chin and continued talking to her, never breaking eye contact, "Now what I want you to do is, I want you to crawl down to the end of the tree and break the end of it off. No questions, it will make sense once you do it."

In Anna's mind she was still panicking but if she showed any outward signs it wouldn't help the situation. So she took a deep, shuddering breath and did as Elsa asked. She turned herself around on the branch slowly and began to shimmy her way across it. Elsa watched with interest at how easily Anna could move across the slender limb. When Anna got to the end, she hesitated as it thinned out and she shimmed a few more inches across it before she stopped and reached out, tugging at the end of it. The branch was very dry and difficult to break off; Anna began to struggle with it.

Elsa removed herself from the trunk of the tree and climbed across the branch after her, whispering Anna's name to get her attention. Elsa reached under her left pant leg, pulled out her knife and held it out, tapping Anna in the thigh with it. The redhead turned her head and nodded breathlessly, reaching out to grab ahold of the blade with her thumb and her pointer finger. She returned to looking down at the end of the branch and grasped the small knife by the hilt and squeezed it tightly before slicing downwards and managing to chop halfway through the tree's branch. The blade wasn't rigid so it wasn't very good at cutting, but it was just sharp enough to do a good enough job.

After a few tense minutes of sawing away at the branch, it fell free and Anna grabbed it before it fell entirely. Elsa sat back on the branch and breathed out in relief, then reached out. Elsa nodded and handed it over.

"Nice job." Elsa whispered approvingly before she stretched out her leg and snapped the branch in half over her knee, making Anna wince. Elsa smiled smugly at Anna's sensitive reaction, then threw the piece of branch as hard as she could into a patch of bushes a ways off. The loud thump and sharp crash of the leaves and branches being knocked back sounded and slowly, sluggishly, the infected turned their heads to look towards the direction in which the sound had come. The two stumbled as they turned and began moving towards the fallen branch. Elsa reacted immediately. She grabbed the knife that was still clenched tightly in Anna's hand, then began to climb back down the tree. Anna wanted to scream at Elsa to stop her, she wanted to yell that she really didn't think that going down there was a good idea, but there was no stopping the blonde as she moved down the tree. Once she reached the bottom, looking to her right to make sure the zombies weren't alerted of her movements she sighed in relief as they kept on their way, oblivious to her and Anna.

Then, Elsa looked up at Anna and reached out for her with both arms, gesturing towards herself.

Did Elsa want her to jump?

No way in hell Anna was going to jump that far…it was almost an eight foot drop!

She looked once again at the zombies who were still limping away with that disgustingly weak gait, and took a deep breath, beginning to climb down. Her fingers clutched desperately to the tree's rough bark and she, not as skilled as Elsa at getting down trees, was agonizingly slow in her descent. Elsa's entire body remained tensed and her eyes widened with desperation, willing Anna to go faster. Halfway down the trunk, as Anna was about to find another foothold for her right foot, her fingers slipped from her grip on the bark above and she fell from the tree with a shrill yell that pierced through the tenseness of the moment like a knife.

As Anna hit the ground violently on her side, the monsters began to turn towards the new sound. Anna knew what she had done and realized the massive mistake, but not before she lifted her arm to her chest and clutched it painfully, her face turning red in her agony.

"FUCK!" Elsa cried, turning to run, but halting as she remembered that Anna had just fallen a good few feet on her arm and most likely couldn't get up without assistance, "Jesus Christ I knew I would regret taking you along!"

The words stung Anna, but they didn't hurt her as much as her arm. She couldn't tell if it was broken or not, but all she knew was that it was bad and that she had to get out of there before they both were bitten. The zombies began moving quickly towards Elsa and Anna, and as an instinctive act of impulse, Elsa reached down and picked the redhead up bridal style, then bolted in the other direction as hard as she could. Anna cradled her arm close to herself and looked behind Elsa's shoulder to see the zombies moving quickly after them.

"Give me the gun!" Anna said in a panicked voice.

"I don't trust you with a gun!" Elsa snapped breathlessly, sprinting faster.

"Just give it to me!" Anna shouted at Elsa, "Let me make up for my mistake!"

"I said I don't-" then, cutting Elsa off, Anna moved herself so that she could reach down and grab a hold of the glock in the holster that hung on Elsa's hip. Elsa began to protest, but she winced in surprise as Anna reached over Elsa's shoulder, holding the gun in her left hand and pulled the trigger once, a one second pause, then Anna pulled the trigger again

As the gunshots faded off into the distance, Elsa stopped running. She bent over in exhaustion and placed Anna on the ground, bending over her for a few moment before turning to look behind her. Elsa's jaw dropped in surprise to see the two zombies lying inert on the forest floor, bullet holes in both of their heads; one right between the eyes and the other right above the left eye.

There was a stunned silence that followed in which the only sounds that could be heard in the forest around them were Elsa's frantic breathing and Anna's shifting movements on the forest floor.

"Well…" Elsa said, lifting her hand to rub the back of her head, "I honestly wasn't expecting something like that to happen, but, I can't say I'm entirely disappointed." She turned back to Anna and knelt down in front of her, "Let me see it."

Anna clutched her wounded arm closer to herself and shook her head in defiance.

"Now, it's never going to get better if you don't let me see it! I've learned how to take care of all sorts of injuries. It's the least I can do for someone who has that good of an aim."

Anna's cheeks flushed to see sudden softness behind the blue eyes of the woman who had been nothing but harsh to her for the short time they had been together. Anna nodded shyly, then shakily held out her injured arm. Elsa sat down completely and folded her legs underneath her so that she was sitting in a comfortable position in front of the younger woman. Elsa took Anna's arm gently and began to examine it.

"Looks like you sprained your wrist and hit your elbow pretty hard." Elsa said softly, "it would be best to try not to move it unless you have to. I know that might be difficult given our current living conditions, but, we need you healed as soon as possible."

Anna's eyes dropped to the ground once again in submission but this time, Elsa cracked a small smile. Something within her weakened when she had seen what Anna could do with a gun. She could surprisingly protect herself as she had said before. Elsa wasn't sure if she could've escaped the things if Anna wasn't there to shoot them down. She didn't realize that the small, weak, redheaded girl could possibly be a valuable addition to her short life.

"S-sorry for falling." Anna apologized awkwardly, "I could always get up a tree really fast, but I could never get back down without almost seriously hurting myself."

"Well, just be thankful you didn't hurt yourself too severely." Elsa replied, letting go of Anna's arm then mumbling, "Don't think I'm still not mad about that." Anna frowned and continued to look at the ground sadly. The two sat in awkward silence until Elsa decided to speak up.

"We should get moving." she stood up and moved beyond Anna who turned around and began to ask for help getting up, but she shut her mouth, then got to her knees and struggled her way up so that she stood as straight as she could, then she moved after Elsa, staying at least five feet away from her at all times. The silence of the forest was soothing to the both of them and despite the fact both knew the danger of Anna pulling that trigger and the potential threat of more infected hearing the sound and moving towards it, they both found comfort in the soft chips from the birds above.

Anna looked up and saw a robin perched on the branch of a tree, singing to the sky without a care. How wonderful it must've been to be a bird in that dark and diseased world. How wonderful it must've been to be able to sit high above the ground and sing all day in oblivious joy, able to fly high above all signs of threat, able to fly as far away you wanted…to fly as far away as you needed…

How wonderful it must've been to be a bird.

Elsa had been in the woods long enough to distinguish the species of bird which each song belonged too. She ran through the names of each bird in her head and smiled when she heard the trebling, broken song of one of her favorite birds. Having to have spent two solid years in the wilderness, Elsa appreciated the only cheerful sound she could hear. Birdsong was the closest to music the woman ever got, and so she learned to memorize every different sound with an expertly trained ear for music.

"You know," said Anna, forgetting about Elsa's rule not to talk, "Sometimes I just wish I could fly away like those birds."

"Me too." Elsa replied sadly, halting for a moment and looking up at the branches above, watching a blue jay walk across a limb before it spread its wings an flapped to another branch nearby, alighting on its end and opening its mouth in song. Anna moved up beside Elsa and looked where Elsa was looking…then she turned her head to gaze at the older woman admiringly.

"I never thought that I would end up here of all places." Said the blonde and Anna began to listen intently, "Living on the streets in a crowded, muggy, overpopulated city was enough," said Elsa, "but I never thought that I would be living out in this tundra, running for my life."

Anna shifted on her feet slightly.

"I've gotten over the fact that the human race is gone." Elsa said, "I've gotten over the fact that I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life, not like I wasn't before."

"Before?" Anna asked softly.

Elsa turned her head to look at Anna whose green eyes were lit with curiosity.

The blonde stared back and suddenly found herself wanting to open up to the little redheaded girl. She seemed easy enough to talk to…however, Elsa's stubborn attitude came back and her good mood was gone in an instant.

"I'll tell you someday." Elsa said impatiently, shouldering her bag once more and moving on, "Let's get going. Once the sun goes down, we can find somewhere to set up camp."

Anna felt massively disappointed as she followed the blonde through the forest. She had gotten somewhere today with her and that's all that was important. She had managed to crack the woman's surface and in the time span of the next few days, Anna was determined to get to the bottom of this girl she knew nothing about. There was a great burden she carried, and for whatever reason, Anna wanted to share that burden.

As they traveled for about two more hours, neither woman said a word or hummed a note. Later, Elsa wordlessly set up camp in a small clearing in the woods and Anna sat on the spiky grass, cradling her wrist. Elsa made a fire, both sat in front of it, shivering with the cold that the night brought, then both crawled into the tent and Anna curled up in the corner while Elsa nestled underneath her blanket.

Without a word, the two fell asleep, giving over to the release of sleep, retreating from the day they had and preparing for the next.


	3. Day 3

Anna, amid her sleep, suddenly started awake. She laid limply in one spot for a few moments, refusing to open her eyes. Once she gained the strength to sit up, she leaned forward, rubbed her eyes sleepily, her jaw dropping in a large yawn. When she was finished, the lifted her gaze and gave a violent start as she caught sight of a looming shadow rising over the side of the tent. Still groggy and delirious, the fear didn't register until the shadow was so large it took up the whole side of the tent. The thing casting the shadow limped weakly forward and Anna held back a scream; a strangled gasp escaping her lips. Her head whipped toward the space where Elsa was laying, "Elsa!" she whispered in a scream, "ELSA!"

"Calm down, you moron." came an impatient, groggy voice from outside, "I got up to pee."

It took Anna a few moments of sleep induced confusion to make the connection between the voice and the position of the person of whom it belonged to. She watched as the limping shadow moved across the front of the tent, then unzipped the tent flap, pulling back to reveal a very tired, sleepy looking blonde with large, dark circles under her blue eyes.

"You know how yesterday you said I did such a good impression of those things you were going to-" Anna began

"Yeah, yeah." Elsa sighed tiredly, getting to her knees and pulling the blanket over her shoulders, "That's when I was in your position in terms of sleep deprivation." She then flopped down and curled up, holding the blanket very closely tucked under her chin. Anna wanted to crawl under that blanket with her…it was big enough for both she and Elsa to fit comfortably under she assumed, and she had been so cold for so long without the comfort of warmth when she slept so...

"E-elsa?" Anna stuttered.

"Mmmmph." Elsa groaned.

"C-can I get under the blanket with you?"

Elsa, completely delirious and exhausted from the events of yesterday groaned once more, uncurled a little to stretch out her legs and sighed with a drawn out breath beforehand, "Whatever"

Anna wasn't sure if that meant a yes or no exactly , but she was too cold to care. She crawled forward and lifted the blanket enough so she could slide hesitantly underneath. As soon as she came in physical contact with the older woman, Anna sighed dreamily. The warmth she provided was wonderful. It was even more wonderful for Elsa who was half asleep and warmer than she had been in a while…

Anna nuzzled her way closer and pressed her cheek to Elsa's shoulder. The blonde curled forward, resting her chin on the top of Anna's head and intertwining their legs. Both women sighed in pleasure and Elsa drifted off while Anna savored the feeling of closeness with the blonde before she nuzzled herself into the crook of Elsa's neck, then fell asleep.

A few hours later, Elsa stirred slightly and was suddenly aware of a warmth unlike any she had felt in the long two years of travel through the north. Her eyes snapped open in alarm, expecting some kind of surprise to go along with this unusual sensation, but she saw nothing but the tent around her. She sighed, then moved her arm…it was resting on something…

She moved her legs and realized they were laced with someone else's and for the first time she noticed the head that was nestled in between her neck and her chest. She began to rage, but then suddenly calmed as the woman lying with her sighed contentedly in her sleep. Elsa blinked as Anna involuntarily snuggled closer, her arm draping over Elsa's side, her lips pressing against Elsa's collarbone.

Elsa cleared her throat in hopes of Anna waking up. The only response she received was Anna moving closer, her stomach pressing against Elsa's. As she began to burn up with this unfamiliar feeling of…whatever she was feeling, Elsa's hands clenched and unclenched tensely. As the morning sun continued to rise, Elsa remained in place, unmoving, afraid to wake Anna up and have the feeling acknowledged. As much as she didn't like to admit it, there was a certain pleasantness there of having close contact…

Suddenly, Anna snorted. Elsa's eyes snapped open and Anna stirred slightly, her leg rubbing against Elsa's almost luxuriously before Anna removed her head from Elsa's neck and looked up at her with innocent green eyes that looked well rested and content.

"Will you get the fuck off me?" Elsa asked rudely, despite the fact that in the back of her mind, she didn't want the warmth that Anna provided to go away entirely.

"Sorry." Anna giggled, sitting up and stretching like she had just had a wonderful sleep and she was about to get up and go get some breakfast like any person having a normal day would do, "I just had a really good night's sleep."

Elsa rolled her eyes and pulled the blanket off of Anna, curled up and rolled over, facing away from the redhead who immediately turned to look at Elsa curiously. Anna almost asked the blonde what was wrong, but she knew it was better to simply hold her tongue than to prod. So, she stretched a little, got up and walked to the tent flap, unzipped it and stepped outside into the cool of the tundra morning. It was slightly warmer than the morning she had yesterday and the birds were singing loudly, the sunlight filtered through the branches of trees, and the patches of snow on the ground weren't as plenteous...

Elsa soon after tumbled out after Anna and stood beside her, hunched, crossing her arms her heavy breaths puffing in front of her face into the sharp air.

"Beautiful day, huh?" Anna asked, turning to smile brightly at Elsa who glared back murderously, the dark circles under her eyes clashing with the pale white of her skin, making her look slightly ghoulish.

"Jesus." Anna giggled, "It's like you're a Morlock."

"Don't pull that Time Machine shit on me." Elsa grumbled, "I'm not in the mood to geek out about how good H.G. Wells writing was."

"That was one of my favorite books." Anna smiled, ignoring Elsa's bad mood, "I also liked the invisible man and War of the Worlds. Have you ever read those books?"

Elsa sighed and straightened slightly, "Whenever I would go to the library that was around the block from where I lived I always picked out the books that looked the most interesting; I stayed away from the classics because all that was on the covers was nothing but the title and maybe a black and white illustration here and there. Once I started broadening my reading material, I got into them."

"Oh really…" Anna smiled, "What kinds of books did you like to read?"

"Anything modern." Elsa replied, running her fingers through her hair, "Modern books like the kinds where the vampire dude hits on the human chick. Or the general petty romance novel. I liked to read them and assess what was realistic and what wasn't."

Anna nodded in agreement, "Those are always fun to pick apart."

Elsa went to continue with their discussion but halted suddenly. She stared at Anna for a few moments, the woman smiling at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue on with their conversation…Elsa shook her head slightly and scoffed.

Anna frowned as Elsa turned her back on her and walked back to the tent, muttering under her breath, "It's not like we'll ever have a chance to ever sit down and read any of those kinds of books again. We need to keep moving." Elsa hopped into the tent and put her blanket into her backpack while making sure her glock was still loaded. Anna stood outside the tent waiting patiently for her companion to finish gathering her things.

"Hey," Anna said, leaning down to peer through the tent entrance, "Maybe I could carry some of the load and hold onto the tent for you!"

Elsa emerged moments later, adjusting her backpack and fixing Anna with that same glare of slight annoyance but mostly impatience, "If you really want to, you can, but the moment you start complaining I'm going to make you carry it for the rest of the month."

"There won't be any complaining." said Anna confidently, slowly learning how to deal with Elsa's bad attitude, "Now take it down for me and let me carry it."

Elsa tilted her head, confused by Anna's sudden confidence, then shrugged to herself and turned, beginning to take down the tent. Anna watched as Elsa worked and happened to take notice of the way Elsa's arms flexed as she worked…

When the blonde had the tent taken down and wrapped up in the bag, she held it out for Anna to take with an indifferent expression. Anna took it heartily and nodded to Elsa for her to lead the way on through the woods. They were off without a word and Anna held back the urge to whistle and sing as they moved their way through the forest. It began to snow slightly later and both women simultaneously looked up to watch the falling crystals of ice…

"Wow…" Anna sighed.

Elsa lowered her head and trudged on while Anna kept looking up at the sky and sticking out her tongue to try and catch the snowflakes on her tongue. Elsa looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, thinking involuntarily of how childish the girl was. Despite this, there was a certain charm about her that made Elsa very curious. She had never felt drawn to a person before; especially if that person was nothing more than a daddy's girl who liked to catch snowflakes on her tongue. However, the fact that Anna had saved them both from the two infected yesterday made Elsa rethink things about her. She had a good aim…and that was respectable. Her optimism though, clashed with her useful talent and made Elsa feel torn between liking her and disliking her.

Elsa settled for the latter.

They continued on their way, Elsa looking out for berry bushes and Anna looking out for any signs of wildlife. All she saw signs of were birds and a few rabbit tracks in the snow. Elsa moved through the brush silently while Anna sort of crashed her way through. Never having been in the woods a lot due to her father's habits of keeping his only daughter safe, Anna didn't know one thing about being quiet as she walked over the snow and the twigs which crunched and snapped under her feet.

Elsa noticed how loud Anna was being and shook her head, deciding to not bother with it for the time being. There were more important things to take care of…

That became all the more evident when Elsa happened to turn her head at the right time to peer through a path of trees to the east/ She halted as she saw a building a ways off…

"Oh…" Elsa breathed, instinctively turning towards the sign of civilization. Anna followed her gaze and her footsteps, growing quickly in pace in her excitement. Perhaps she could impress Elsa with her ability to scavenge for useful supplies…

Elsa led Anna through the bushes and out into the open where the two were met by not just a single building, but several buildings beyond it. They had happened to stumble on a small town in the middle of the Canada tundra. Elsa quickened her pace immediately. As soon as they reached the small town house they had seen from the woods, Elsa gestured for Anna to follow her closely as she rounded the house to the front. She stepped up onto the porch and pulled out her gun from its holster grasping it in both hands as she approached the door. Despite the fact that the town looked generally deserted, one couldn't be too careful when it came to breaking into a house in the middle of nowhere.

Elsa reached down and placed a hand on the doorknob, turning to look at Anna before she opened it completely. Anna, remaining very close to her at all times, nodded to her before Elsa turned the knob and the door swung open. Inside looked like nothing but a house that had been left alone for a very long while. Elsa moved from room to room, pointing the gun in every direction, her expertly trained eye scanning every darkened corner for any sign of threat. Meanwhile, Anna wished she would've grabbed a branch or something to defend herself in case of any kind of assault.

Once the two had raided the kitchen, the living room and the stairwell, finding nothing but empty cupboards, they stood together at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm going up there." Elsa said to Anna who stood beside her, "You stay down here and…I dunno…run upstairs if you hear something or someone. I just need a lookout."

"No problem." Anna smiled and Elsa hesitated before she began up the stairs. Her footsteps creaked unsteadily across the wooden floorboards. Once she reached the top, she looked down at Anna who nodded for her to go on ahead. Elsa looked up and peered down the hallway that led off into several rooms, one at the end.

Anna stood still for a few minutes, listening to Elsa's expertly quieted footsteps as she moved down the hallway above, then sat down on the last step of the staircase, sitting her head in her hand and gazing out the front door onto the barren street. She tapped her foot and her leg bounced as she waited.

Elsa, meanwhile, was searching what appeared to be a children's room. She searched the drawers and then moved out of the room to the parent's bedroom. She searched through the bathroom that was conjoined to the main room, the draws to the dresser, and the nightstand. Inside the nightstand she found a small box that looked like a ring holder. It was empty however, and she moved on. She searched the bathroom down the hall and crouched to open the cupboard under the sink. She reached inside and her hand closed around the neck of a bottle…

"Scope." Elsa thought, "Might as well take this."

She tucked it in her pack, then turned to look in the towel closet. She reached inside to pull out two dirty, musty looking towels and stored them in her pack along with the mouthwash. She found a bar of soap as well.

Anna, going against Elsa's orders, had walked into the kitchen and was looking around curiously. She happened to turn in the right direction to catch sight of from what looked like a cupboard in the back of the room. She looked back to the staircase hesitantly for a moment before crossing the room to find out what was behind it. Opening the small wooden door, she found a small hidden room behind it with a hatch that lead downwards. Her eyes widened slightly and she turned to go get Elsa…

The blonde, who had finished her search had crept down the stairs and, not seeing Anna where she left her, began to panic slightly. She had moved soundlessly from the entrance way into the kitchen just in time to see Anna opening the door to the hidden room. When Anna turned, she bumped into Elsa and held back a scream of alarm.

Elsa reached forward and steadied her, gripping her arms tightly before letting her go and shaking her head, "I told you to wait at the stairs."

"Sorry…" Anna apologized, "But…I found a room."

Elsa looked past Anna and eyed the trapdoor, "Hmm." She turned to Anna and smiled mischievously, "Since you found it, why don't you go first?"

At the suggestion Anna balked.

"Only if you give me your gun." She replied quickly.

Elsa smiled a bit wider then, enjoying how quickly Anna responded with that demanding tone. She thought it over for a few moments while Anna stared at her expectantly…

She reluctantly reached down and pulled the gun out of the holster and handed it over. Anna handled the gun unsteadily at first but soon gripped it firmly and confidently in her right hand. She turned towards the hatch and moved towards it, Elsa behind her. She crouched and hooked her fingers under the handle, then pulled upwards. The wooden hatch door opened with some effort but Anna eventually got it open enough so the two could slip inside. A ladder lead down into a room full of inky blankness.

"You wouldn't happen to have a flashlight, would you?" Anna asked. Elsa paused, took off her pack, unzipped it, then pulled out a self-charging flashlight. Elsa handed it to Anna who took it and nodded her thanks. Leaning over the hole in the floor, Anna pressed the button on the flash light, then shone it down into the basement. Nothing could be seen from the hatch's entrance but a concrete floor so Anna turned herself so that she was able to get a foothold on the ladder. She began to climb down. The smell of rot and decay surrounded her once she was entirely under the entrance and she moved the ray of light around the room.

The room was much bigger than she expected. It almost seemed like a bunker or a safe house or something…Then she shone it in the far left corner and she winced, shutting her eyes, her finger slamming back down on the button and turning off the light at what she saw.

"Anna…" Elsa said, leaning over the entrance and narrowing her eyes into the darkness, "Anna, what did you see?"

"T-The…The family." Anna stuttered, turning on the flashlight again, "Elsa," she looked up at the blonde pleadingly, "I need you to come with me, I don't think I can be down here alone."

Elsa rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder…then moved down the ladder after Anna. Once Anna reached the bottom she remained directly beside the ladder, her hand on the side of it until Elsa reached the bottom beside her. She turned on the flashlight, aiming it at the floor so Elsa could see. where the ladder ended, although her eyes were glued to the left corner of the room where she had seen something she had never wanted to see. Once Elsa was standing beside her, she wordlessly asked Anna what the matter was. Anna took a deep breath, then pointed the flashlight beam towards what she had seen. Even Elsa had to wince slightly.

In the corner of the room there lay a corpse leaned against the wall with a bullet in the middle of his head. There was an equally decaying corpse laying on the floor in front of it and two corpses in the first corpses lap. Anna covered her mouth, tears glistening in the dim light. She had to look away. Elsa's eyes narrowed and she lowered her head and sighed softly, her soft voice echoing throughout the stone walls.

"Come on." She sighed, "Check the shelves."

Anna looked at Elsa and received a short, rare comforting gaze from her, then nodded slowly and moved off towards the other side of the room. Elsa leaned against the ladder, crossing her arms, watching as Anna as she skimmed over the shelves for supplies. There was nothing but a few cans of what looked like green beans and yams along with a rusty can opener in the corner.

Anna carried the cans back and Elsa placed her backpack down for Anna to slip the food inside. As Anna made room in the pack, Elsa looked up and scanned the room for more food. On the very very back shelf she saw something hidden in the dark. She moved away from Anna, shining the flashlight towards the corner. Once she reached it she held out a hand and pulled up the box of cereal…

"Captain crunch…" She mumbled, turning over the box to look at the back, "I forgot what this shit tastes like."

Anna looked up and smiled excitedly, zipping up the backpack and putting it over her shoulder, "You found something?"

"Captain crunch." Elsa replied, holding out the box for Anna to see. Her eyes sparked with excitement and she reached out to grab the box. However, before her hand could close around it, Elsa pulled it to her chest teasingly.

"I get dibs." The blonde smirked.

"Oh come on!" Anna pouted, "That's my favorite cereal!"

"Be that as it may, I never got to have this cereal except when I was very little so…I should get the first few handfuls."

"…Fine!" Anna sighed, crossing her arms and sticking out her bottom lip, "Just hurry up so I can get some."

"We're going to eat this sparingly." Elsa said, chuckling, "Let's get out of here."

As the two moved towards the ladder, Anna had one last look at the family who had committed suicide. They had decided that dying at the hand of their father and husband was better than becoming one of the infected. The two hurried hastily upwards and once both of them stood safely in the kitchen, Elsa closed the hatch door and turned to Anna, "Let's move. We have a lot more to search." She walked towards the front door, talking to Anna over her shoulder, "we need to find you some kind of weapon."

"That would be preferable." Anna replied, following Elsa out into the street, "You have no idea how vulnerable I feel right now."

"We'll fix that eventually." Elsa continued, looking down the street into the small town. There were a total of five shops at the road side. A barber shop, a general store, a clothes store, what appeared to be a small cinema and what looked to be a warehouse. At the end of the dirt road, it branched off into smaller roads that receded into the woods, most likely leading to other local houses.

Elsa moved towards the barber shop and opened the door, the little bell that hung by the top of the door ringing lightly as her hands pushed against the glass. It was a small building with four chairs, two on each side of the room. The place looked like it had been abandoned in a hurry since there there were still piles of cut hair remaining on the floor around the chairs, having been left there for some unknown reason. Anna never did like the quiet, and this place was eerily silent. In the house before, she could hear every move she made on the floor and it provided some noise, in the basement every small sound echoed off the stone walls... She could her the creaking above as Elsa had moved down the hallway in her search for supplies, but this place had no wooden flooring to hear her footsteps. All one could hear was the slight tap of the heel of one's shoe as it placed against the cool tiles below.

"And I thought the other place was creepy." Anna shivered, glancing in the corner to eye a strange looking shadow in the dimness, "What would we need from a place like this?"

"You never overlook an opportunity to scavenge." Elsa replied, moving towards the back room, "There's always a chance to find something beneficial. Although it may be small, you never know what could keep you alive."

"Yeah." Anna replied walking up to a desk where many bottles of old hairspray were set aside, "Maybe we could just…I dunno, throw these cans of hairspray at something if we're attacked."

"It's all about keeping an open mind." Elsa explained as she reached the back of the store and opened the door to peer inside. Electricity had long since been gone, but in the back of the room sat a solitary refrigerator, "Nice…"

Anna turned her head to follow Elsa into the room and once they approached the refrigerator, Elsa threw it open excitedly. Inside they found five bottles of water and what appeared to be the remains of a salad. Anna's nose wrinkled in disgust at the rotting plate of food, but then smiled as Elsa eagerly grabbed the water bottles, a flicker of excitement in her eyes.

"Alright, let's keep moving." Elsa said, the rare beginnings of a smile forming on her face, "God, I hope we can find more stuff like this."

Anna followed Elsa outside, across the street and into the general store. They pried the glass doors open and walked inside, their footsteps tapping though the silence. The two were completely shocked to find a few shelves not completely stripped of goods. The town had fled in a hurry it seemed, and they left behind all that they couldn't grab in time. In all, there remained two cans of soup, a pack of beef jerky, and a frozen container of juice. It seemed like the town was recently abandoned as well so the food that was bottled and packaged wasn't exactly spoiled yet. As they finished their raid through the store, circling back to the front doors to leave, the both of them nearly squealed once they saw the vending machine by the front of the store, stocked full of things like chocolate and granola bars.

"Shit!" Elsa laughed, running up to the machine and pressing her hands against the glass, "Look at all this stuff!"

"I know!" Anna giggled, brushing up against the blonde in her excitement, "We gonna smash the glass?"

"Oh, you know it!" the blonde smiled. She hesitated, looked down at her backpack and wondered if she swung it hard enough, it could break the glass. She looked around the store for a moment and caught sight of a register by the checkout isle. She ran quickly to the register and picked it up with much difficulty, trudging back to the vending machine with a few grunts and groans.

"Stand back." Elsa warned, then she threw the register at the pane of glass. It shattered, and in seconds both girls were shoving as much of the granola bars, chocolate bars, candy bars and packs of candy into Elsa's backpack as they possibly could.

"I've…" Elsa paused, breathlessly, 'I've never been this lucky in my life! God..." the two made another sweep through the general store before leaving in an excited flurry of conversation, speaking about how they were going to conserve as much of the food as they could to make it last.

They walked across the street into the clothes store and Elsa picked up a pair of new mismatching tennis shoes that had fallen out of the box. They fit a bit looser than her other ones, but not loose enough to slow her down. Anna found a hoodie in the very back of the store and Elsa encouraged her to keep it.

They moved on to scavenge the cinema where they found nothing but very very stale popcorn and a few packs of gummy worms behind the glass at the front of the main room. The two walked throughout the cinema rooms together, looking through the large, darkened theater with the flashlight as well as they could. They found almost nothing in the cinema, but Elsa's good mood wasn't extinguished in the least…

Then, finally, they made it to the ware house. Elsa hooked her fingers underneath the warehouse door's handle and once she lifted it a crack off the ground she began to struggle. With the help of Anna, she managed to get the door open completely. It swung above them with a metal screech then halted, slightly slanted, looking as if it were about to slam shut. Elsa looked into the warehouse and her jaw dropped.

There were a few boxes littered throughout the room, a total of four in all.

"SHIT!" Elsa said, almost having to lean on Anna for support in her disbelief, "We need to open these right now."

Elsa raced inside, Anna on her heels. The two got to their knees at the nearest box and Elsa pulled out her knife and slit open the flaps at the top…Inside, hidden among a bunch of packing peanuts were cases upon cases of ammo in boxes and magazines.

"Okay this is absolutely ridiculous!" Elsa breathed, pulling up a box and reading the front, "God if you're real up there please let there be a gun in here somewhere."

Anna nodded silently in agreement and put as many packages of ammo into her hoodie as she could fit, then jogged to the next box.

"Here!" Elsa called to her, throwing her knife to Anna who scrambled to catch it, "I'm gonna try to fit these cases in my backpack, you open the next one!"

The redhead slit open the next, larger box and let out a gasp of shock. Inside lay a beat up looking AK-47 with a missing clip.

"Holy CRAP I just found a fucking assault rifle!" Anna gasped.

"You've gotta be shitting me here, are you SERIOUS?" Elsa laughed, rushing over to Anna who pulled out the gun and raised it to her shoulder, aiming at the back of the warehouse, "God damn!"

"Can I have your glock if you want the rifle?" Anna asked excitedly.

"N…no…" Elsa responded, resting her hand on her gun that rested at her side, "I did a lot to get him-uh-this gun. Since you found it, you keep it. You're a better shot anyways." Anna nodded excitedly then, carrying the assault rifle with her, she moved towards the next box at the back of the room.

Elsa looked over her shoulder to look outside at the street…

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously and took a few steps toward the opening… whenever the woman felt something wrong in her gut, she knew there was something wrong. And she had learned that whenever something felt wrong, it was best to get out of the vicinity as fast as possible.

"Oh!" Anna shouted, "Look! Look I found more magazines!"

Elsa kept her eyes fixed to the front of the warehouse as she moved backwards to approach Anna. She crouched down in front of the redhead as she pulled out the next few clips of ammo and said in a hushed whisper, "Anna…something's wrong out there."

The smaller girl froze and fixed Elsa with a wide eyed stare.

"Leave the last box and let's move carefully towards the entrance…Keep an ear and eye out for…"

"If you move one fucking inch I'm gonna fill you full of lead!" came a grating male voice from the warehouse opening. Elsa shut her eyes and grimaced. Anna almost screamed as she looked to see two men standing side my side, equal in stature. They both held handguns, finger on the trigger, staring the girls down. One had a scruffy head of blonde hair and the other had red hair that looked like it had gone under a recent attempt to be groomed.

"Put your hands on your head." The blonde man shouted, "Stand up!"

"Do as he says." Elsa whispered to Anna, slowly standing up and putting her hands behind her head.

Anna was quaking with fear.

"Under normal circumstances I would question you as to why you have been trailing two women through the woods and around this town here, but I guess we all know the answer." Said Elsa, looking the redhead straight in the eye, she shifted them to look at the blonde, "If you shoot me, my friend will open fire, and if you shoot her, I'll open fire."

"What are you doing!" Anna hissed.

Elsa knew what she was doing.

"If you want to risk one of your lives for these supplies, be my guest."

"Or we could fire at the same time and kill both of you and then take your things." said the redhead.

Elsa bit her lip and looked down at the ground for a long moment.

"Now hand over the backpack, and we'll let you live." The blonde man said, a slight waver in his voice that Elsa detected immediately. Anna was almost whimpering in terror. Elsa looked from her to the men and then sighed slowly. She kicked the backpack towards the two and it rolled to a stop in front of them.

The redhead smirked smugly, then chuckled darkly, "Now…you both get over here…"

Elsa recognized that tone of voice. She had head it many times before in the back alleyways of the city where no one could hear women scream…She looked at Anna who shook her head violently in protest but Elsa sighed once more and began to move towards the two men. Anna watched Elsa as she followed her. There was something in the woman's eyes that made Anna feel like everything was going to turn out okay somehow. There was hardness to them, but she seemed like she was so sure that she could get out of any situation that it made Anna believe it herself. As the two women moved forward and halted in front of the men, the redhead lowered his gun and grabbed Elsa by the arm.

Immediately Elsa reacted and her knee jerked upwards directly into the man's crotch. Not expecting her to react so quickly and with such force, the redhead doubled over. The blonde, not reacting fast enough was promptly given an expertly timed uppercut to the jaw by Anna in which he stumbled backwards and landed in a tizzy. The redheaded man, whose legs were shaking with pain, looked up at Elsa as she stood over him.

"I could say something smug to you here right now." Elsa said, "but you're not really worth it." She pulled out her gun and placed it at his temple, "Now you two better fuck off or I'll pull this trigger and blow your brains halfway across this warehouse, do I make myself clear?"

The man nodded slowly and Elsa debated with herself for a fraction of a second whether or not she should blow the man's head off anyway, but despite her better judgment , she reached down, pried the gun from his hand and kicked him very hard in the side, causing to roll away from her. Anna whispered, "Sorry! I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" then held out her hand to take gun from the blonde and he handed it over with a long sigh. He stood, backed away from Elsa who took a menacing step towards him, then walked over to the redhead, picked him up by the arm and dragged him away, across the street and into the bushes. Elsa aimed her gun at the bush they had disappeared behind and fired a single warning shot.

"GYAH!" one cried.

"What the fuck!" the second yelled.

Elsa chuckled, then holstered her glock and gripped the other handgun in her left hand. Anna held the handgun tightly and looked at the ground sadly. Elsa turned her, smiling with triumph, then walked up to her backpack and swung it over her shoulder.

"Lets get a move on." Said the blonde, moving to the back of the warehouse to pick up the AK-47 that had been dropped so suddenly to the concrete floor. She walked back to Anna and held it out for her to take. Anna smiled weakly, then took the assault rifle by the neck, then placed it to her chest and grabbed the handle, pressing her lips together.

"We going to set up camp soon?' Anna asked as Elsa began to lead her back into the forest.

"As soon as we find a good place, we can set up camp early." Elsa replied, "I wanna sit down and have a small meal as soon as possible."

And so the two moved on through the forest, walking for about three more hours, their time together riddled with small conversations about nothing in general until Elsa felt like it was a safe place to stop for the night. Anna handed Elsa the tent and the blonde began setting it up while Anna reached into the backpack and pulled out the can of chicken soup.

"This is gonna be delicious." Anna said excitedly.

And indeed it was. Neither of them had had a good meal in a while and Elsa was tremendously thankful for the chance to eat a small can of soup, a couple pieces of jerky and then half a candy bar. As the two sat together by the roaring fire, and as Elsa ate her food eagerly, making faces of pleasure every time she took a bite, Anna smiled at her...then became suddenly aware of something she didn't notice before.

...The firelight flickered softly across Elsa's face and illuminated her eyes to a point in which they shimmered beautifully in the dimness. Anna hunched her shoulders shyly and played with her hair. Elsa noticed the way a blush crossed Anna's freckled cheeks and blinked suddenly, looking down at the can of soup that Anna had graciously let her have. She lifted a hand to rub her cheek, then she held out the can of warm soup out for Anna...

"Here..." Elsa offered.

Anna smiled happily and reached out to take the can, then tipped it back, getting a mouthful of noodles and broth, then handing it back to her, licking her lips, smiling happily. Elsa took it back and brushed her fingers against Anna's gently.

"Would you like to share the blanket tonight?" Elsa asked suddenly and Anna smiled excitedly, nodding. they finished their food, put out the fire and walked into the tent together. Elsa, with somewhat of a full stomach felt very sleepy and immediately laid down. Anna sat down beside her and went to reach down to brush some hair out of Elsa's face...Elsa looked at her curiously and Anna bit her lip, her finger hovering over the woman's face. Elsa sighed tiredly and shut her eyes and Anna reached down, brushing her fingers across Elsa's cheek and brushing the hair out of her face. She slid under the blanket with Elsa and lay facing away from her, but was given pleasant surprise as she felt Elsa's body curling around her for warmth. She smiled, laid her head back on Elsa's chest and shut her eyes, giving over to the void of sleep and rest.


	4. Day 4

Elsa awoke to a confused and startled voice murmuring off to the side of the tent. She opened her eyes slowly, quickly shutting them against the morning sun, lifting a hand to rub them vigorously before slowly opening them again and blurrily focusing on Anna who was scuffling about on the ground, looking every which way, silent words on her lips, her eyes full of panic.

"Anna?" Elsa asked curiously, taken aback by her weird behavior, "What are you…"

Then she noticed something was missing from the corner of the tent. Her eyes widened in horror…

"Shit!" she gasped, getting to her knees and beginning to panic, "Shit! Shit!"

Her backpack with all the food and supplies along with Anna's Ak-47 were gone.

Dread hit her square in the chest and her heart began to hammer. She felt sick. She looked to Anna who was still scooting about across the ground, murmuring strange things into the dirt and looking around with dilated green eyes.

"A-anna?" Elsa asked, reaching out to touch the redhead, "Stop being stupid…you're acting really weird."

Then, Anna looked up and crawled towards her, resting her forehead against Elsa's and placing a hand on her shoulder. Elsa's cheeks flushed suddenly and her ears turned red. It was out of displeasure at the extremely close proximity but there was something about it that felt natural. Elsa half closed her eyes as she felt Anna's breath move across her lips. Then Anna leaned it for a kiss…

Elsa started awake from her bizarre dream into the waking world, the sudden buffet of harsh cold tundra wind waking her up faster than usual…there was something off about the atmosphere however, and Elsa blinked slowly, taking in the sight of the tent flap that had been opened and had been fluttering weekly in the wind from the intense blizzard outside…the snow had fallen about three inches thick while they slept and the blizzard was still ongoing. Wondering how the flap got open she then turned her head to look at the corner of the tent to see if the supply bag was still there…

Her eyes snapped open to see the redhead and the blonde standing there…the older man with his arm hooked under one backpack strap and the younger tensing to run.

Elsa pulled the gun out of the holster and fired immediately. Simultaneously both the redhead man and Anna screamed, one in pain, one in fear. Anna jumped awake and buried her head in Elsa's chest without thinking and the man fell to his knees clutching the arm that had been outstretched to grab the backpack. Elsa placed a protective hand over Anna's head, covering the smaller girl's ears as she turned her body to aim and fire at the blonde who had made a run for it. She hit him in the back of the leg and he fell forwards with a scream of agony.

"Fuck!" the redheaded man gasped, desperately clenching his arm, blood trickling out from between his shaking fingers, "Damn you." He looked out the open tent flap at his companion who had turned over on his back in the snow and was clutching the back of his calf, teeth clenched in pain.

"Why the hell did you think you could come back here and just steal out stuff?" Elsa demanded. She felt Anna's hands clutching at her shirt and the small whimper that escaped the girl's throat made Elsa feel both protective, angry at the two idiots who had made her whimper, and slightly disgusted.

"We do what we have to do to survive." The redhead growled in reply, his face screwed up in pain, "You trigger happy bitches."

Anna lifted her head from Elsa's chest to look out the tent flap at the man who was lying outside, the blood from his wound dripping into the snow, staining it red. She bit her lip and looked up at Elsa who was staring the man in the tent down. In the heat of the moment, it was either clouded judgment or genuine attraction that gave Anna such a rush of heat to her face, but a few seconds later it all was forgotten as Elsa moved away from her and stood slowly, walking over to the furious redhead, placing the gun against his temple.

"You and your friend will leave right now or so help me I'll kill you both." Elsa growled.

"Okay!" the blonde haired man cried from outside, "Listen, my name is Kristoff and that other douche is Hans! We're brothers, and all we ask of you is just a small bit of supplies to last us a little while." Elsa turned her head to look out at Kristoff who was crawling towards the tent, the blood gushing from the wound in his leg, "We've been so desperate for food lately that we thought this was our only option. We can't hunt for food and you had already picked that town clean by the time we got there!"

Anna felt a pang of sympathy for him.

"We've been without food for almost two weeks." Kristoff went on, "And now I'm not even sure either of us will survive much longer since you've just destroyed any chance of me ever using my leg again and you blasted a hole in my brother's arm."

"Don't try to make me look like the bad guy." Elsa snapped, "We need this food and these supplies just as much as you do, we might not be in your position, but we need it nonetheless."

"If you have any kindness left-"

"This world isn't kind." Elsa shouted and Anna winced, "This world is cruel and selfish and self-providing. I'm sorry you weren't fast enough to get this food, but if you think we owe you anything for you two being slow, then you're very wrong. I shot you both because you were stealing from us. Good cause or not it's still stealing. You would have done the exact same if you were in my position."

Kristoff lowered his head and shut his eyes, clenching his teeth in pain. Hans glared murderously at the blonde who still held him at gun point, staring maliciously back. When the redhead began to move again Elsa thrust the gun in his direction to intimidate him. He scowled and moved passed her and Anna outside where he walked to his brother and knelt down in front of him, putting his arm under his back and helping him sit up.

"It's best you fuck off as soon as possible." Elsa called from the tent, "Consider it a kindness that I shortened your miserable lives in this hell of a world!" she reached out and zipped the tent flap shut then fell back on the blanket breathlessly. She sat there a few moments, letting what she had just done sink in. Anna looked at her incredulously. When Elsa lifted her head to meet Anna's gaze she felt all the worse.

"This world is selfish, cruel, and unkind…" Anna said, "But you could've been different from the world."

"Listen." Elsa said, lifting a hand to run her fingers through her hair tiredly, "I did what was right in retrospect."

Anna then took a long moment to think about Elsa's actions. What she did was justifiable of course, but honestly, no matter what anyone did they didn't deserve to be shot.

"I didn't kill them." Elsa murmured, hugging her knees, "And we're not responsible for feeding them with OUR food if they're not going to stay and earn their keep…" she paused for a long moment, "Do you think I feel no sympathy for those two?"

Anna lowered her head.

"All my life I've been one of those people," Elsa said, "starving, just looking for some kind of help…and it pains me that I can't help them. But only to a degree. After what they did yesterday, holding us at gunpoint, threatening to rape us and then trailing us to where we slept, attempting to steal our supplies again…there's no way I would help them after that."

Anna nodded slowly in understanding.

"I'm not an unkind person." Elsa said, "I wanted to help them. But I didn't because it was the best decision for me."

"I understand." Anna sighed, "I just…see a person in need and I want to help them."

"In a normal world," said Elsa, "That would be a very good attribute to have..."

Anna smiled.

"But in this world," Elsa continued, "Kindness will get you killed."

The redhead blinked, then hugged her knees and hid her head. Elsa felt sorry for the younger girl. She hadn't known how the world worked until very recently. Lucky for her, Elsa had enough experience to try and pass on that knowledge.

Elsa watched Anna for a while as she sat there, unmoving in her position for a long while before lifting her head. Anna looked into Elsa's eyes and nodded, then looked towards the opening to the tent flap that was doing a poor job of keeping the biting cold away.

"Are we just going to sit in here and wait out the storm?" Anna asked.

"It wouldn't exactly be the best thing to walk out into a full out blizzard in the middle of the northern part of Canada now would it?" Elsa replied nonchalantly, "Yeah, we'll just wait the storm out and move once everything calms down and the snow levels out. Until then try and get warm. Hopefully it won't last too long."

Anna nodded, then wrapped the blanket around her and looked expectantly towards Elsa holding out an arm, the blanket open for her to join. Elsa shook her head and continued hugging her knees, staring straight out at the tent flap. Anna shrugged and wrapped the blanket around her tightly then plopped down on her side, her cheek hitting the cool ground and her eyes slamming shut. Although Elsa wouldn't admit it, she wanted her blanket back, but something foreign had crept into her judgment and she let the younger girl go with her blanket. She…suddenly cared how cold Anna got.

Hours passed in which the two sat together in silence. Elsa kept vigil, staring at the entrance of the tent and wondering how many zombies would freeze by the end of the day. The blizzard was certainly cold enough, anything without body heat would instantly freeze in this place. Anna was half asleep in a daze. She didn't want to fall asleep entirely because she didn't want Elsa to think she was lazy, but in reality she was absolutely exhausted due to the fact she was woken up so quickly and so violently. Her eyes fell closed every now and again but she forced herself awake the next moment. Time passed very slowly for her as she resisted sleep. The sound of the wind buffeting the tent outside and the presence of the protective woman beside her began to lull her to sleep for the final time, but before her eyes could shut completely she heard the sound of chattering teeth.

She lifted her head and looked towards the sound to see Elsa sitting in the same spot as before, holding her legs against her chest, her chin resting against her knee, her jaw quivering slightly as her teeth chattered with cold. There was a slight quiver to her arms, legs and shoulders and Anna sat up immediately. She looked down at the blanket and then back at Elsa. It was the blonde's blanket after all…

Anna soundlessly stood and walked over to Elsa, then took the blanket from off of her then placed it over the other woman's shoulders, tucking it around her so that she was covered completely. Anna hugged herself, then sat down beside her. Elsa opened her eyes and turned to look at Anna who smiled right back. She pulled the blanket around her and tucked it under her chin like she usually did.

"You know…" Anna said, tilting her head, "If we keep moving north, we're going to run out of land."

"I know." Elsa said, nodding her head, "I've thought about that." She paused, "I've been one step ahead of this pandemic for a long while. I don't see as many zombies as the other survivors because I keep moving. Without fail I always keep moving. Moving away from the infected, always staying one step ahead."

"What will happen once we reach the ocean?" Anna asked.

Elsa sighed then shut her eyes and rested her chin on her leg, once more "I don't know, Anna…I don't know."

"Well." the redhead said, ever the optimist, "We should start thinking of ideas!"

"My idea is that our lives end there." Elsa said simply, "either you and I die at the hands of zombies or you and I freeze to death in the ocean."

Anna's eyes widened suddenly and she lowered her head.

"I don't wanna die though." She said.

Elsa chuckled at her innocence.

"No one in this world truly wants to die." The blonde replied, her blue eyes locked on the entrance of the tent, "I feel uncomfortable staying in one place for so long in the daylight."

"Maybe we can just move a little bit?" Anna asked.

"Too risky." Elsa replied, "You can't see a zombie in a blizzard. They could blow right up to you and you couldn't even see or hear them until it's too late."

Almost as soon as Elsa's sentence ended, the sun shone through the heavy clouds and the snowfall lessened. Elsa looked at Anna and nodded, both of them getting to their feet quickly. Anna grabbed her assault rifle and Elsa shouldered her backpack quickly, then both stepped out into the snow. Anna looked up at the remaining snowflakes, opening her mouth to catch a few on her tongue...Elsa instantly grabbed her arm. Her grip was tight enough to make Anna wince and bite down. Her eyes watering from the stinging pain of having bit down on her tongue, Anna turned to where Elsa was looking. Her eyes widened and her hand shot up to cover her mouth in horror.

A hoard of zombies about eleven strong had come from the east and had been inches away from touching the tent before freezing completely in the blizzard's biting wind. There were too many of them for the girls to escape if they had been surprised. If it weren't for the drop of temperature, the infected would have reached the two and would've been upon them without a moment's notice. The grotesque and gruesome creatures were frozen to the icy ground in their limp, looming forms.

"Like I said," Elsa said in a whisper, "You don't see or hear them until it's too late."

the wind rustled through the trees and Anna slid her hand down to Elsa's hand, interlocking their fingers together, "I don't want to be here anymore."

"Let's move." Elsa said, immediately turning, letting go of Anna's hand. The younger girl paused for a moment to look at what would've taken her life in an instant before she followed Elsa to the tent, helped her take it down, and put it in her arms, following Elsa into the woods.

The snow proved to be slow going for the both of them. They soon were dragging their feet, tired and worn from the constant struggle to get through the snow. Elsa couldn't sing due to the fact she had to lift her leg with effort to take a single step and Anna couldn't talk because she was too exhausted to say a word. Both women simply trudged on in silence, listening to the occasional chirp of a bird from above and the recesses of the storm receding through the branches.

Hours passed as they traveled this way.

Anna reached out and placed a hand on Elsa's backpack.

"What are you doing?" Elsa asked as Anna unzipped the back compartment and pulled out the bag of beef jerky.

"Just getting a bite." Anna replied, "Want some?"

"Sure." Elsa muttered. Anna opened the bag and pulled out a piece of Jerky, then tapped Elsa's shoulder. Elsa reached up and grabbed the piece of meat, then began to chew on it slowly. Anna smiled and plodded a bit faster to walk beside Elsa.

"Sooo…do you think we can make a boat when we reach the ocean."

"What?" Elsa asked, looking at Anna like she was delusional.

"You know…a boat!" Anna repeated, tucking the bag of jerky under her right arm as she hugged herself, "I'm trying to have an open mind here."

"Hmph." Elsa grumbled, bothered slightly by Anna's optimism.

"I dunno." Anna shrugged, falling into silence again. Elsa look at her out of the corner of her eye for a few minutes before sighing tiredly and stopping in the snow.

"We can stop for a bit." Elsa said.

Anna let out a tremendous sigh and flopped down to the ground on her back, sinking into the snow. Elsa watched in amusement and sat down in front of her. Anna lifted her head and smiled at Elsa who remained stone faced. She took another piece of jerky out of the bag, put it in her mouth, threw the bag to Elsa who caught it without blinking, then laid her head back down in the snow and began to make a snow angel. Elsa chuckled silently, but warmly. There was something very, very charming about Anna, Elsa couldn't deny this. She watched as the redhead made a snow angel and then sat up, looking behind her at her work.

"That probably wasn't the best idea." She giggled, her mouth full of jerky, then shook her head free of small clumps of snow that had stuck, "You know, the cold isn't bothering me as much as it did."

"The cold never bothered me." Elsa replied tucking the dried meat back into the pack.

"Well good for you!" Anna replied smugly, standing up and placing herself down next to Elsa, "You know I still don't know your story…"

Elsa turned her head to look at Anna and shook her head slowly. Both girls pressed their lips together like the other and looked away, Anna facing her snow angel and Elsa to the woods beyond them. The redhead poked the snow with the tip of her shoe an absentmindedly wondered if she would ever get to hear Elsa's story.

Elsa felt slightly guilty. The girl had asked where she had come from and what her story was from the very beginning and there they were, three days later, she still didn't know, even though Elsa knew it was a constant itch in the back of the girl's mind. She sighed like she did so often and turned to look at Anna who was looking at her out of the corner of her eye. There was an awkward silence between the two of them. Almost like the two were both trying to think of something to say to the other, but neither of them could come up with anything good.

"Well…" Elsa said, looking down at the snow angel on the ground, "I like the little snow angel at least."

Anna smiled and hugged her knees, "You wanna have a snow ball fight?"

Elsa looked at her curiously and then found her cheeks coloring as Anna looked right back, a mischievous smile crossing her face, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"No." Elsa answered, going against what her heart wanted, "We need to keep moving."

The light faded from Anna's eyes as Elsa stood up. She held out a hand for Anna to take in which she did. Elsa helped the younger girl to her feet, picked up the tent for her and lead the way further into the forest. Anna looked behind her at the snow angel and sighed sadly, then lowered her head and trudged on behind the blonde.

They traveled for another three hours before Anna had to stop again.

"God damn." Elsa sighed, sitting down beside Anna, "What I wouldn't give to be out of this fucking place. You have no idea how many times I've had to plow my way through this stuff to get where I needed to go."

"How long have you been out here exactly?" Anna asked, her hit, labored breaths billowing in front of her face.

"About two years now." Elsa replied, "And every day with snow on the ground is a nightmare." She laid back on the ground in frustration, "This sucks."

Anna giggled and Elsa felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth at the gentle sound.

"…I wonder what would happen if we went back down to the United States…" Anna wondered aloud.

"I know exactly what would happen." Elsa said, sitting up a little.

Both girls looked at each other for a moment…

"We would die." They said simultaneously, Anna nodding and Elsa laying back down again.

"Then again, it would be a nice change of pace."

"What, dying?"

"Heh. Not exactly no," Elsa said, stretching out her legs, "A change of pace as in temperature...I'd love to get to Arizona."

"Ohhh, god yeah." Anna sighed longingly, "The searing heat would feel wonderful."

"After a while the both of us would get sunburnt now that I think about it." Elsa said, running her fingers through her mane of blonde hair, "I'd like to get to Idaho or Nebraska."

"Why?" Anna asked with a giggle.

"Because," said Elsa, "There's nothing but flat."

"And corn fields." Anna added.

"We could literally see a hoard of zombies from half a mile away and we'd be out of there in an instant." Elsa said softly, turning her head to look at the redhead who was looking down at her, "You ready to keep going?"

"I just wanna sit here for a while longer with you but I guess we must." Anna said, struggling to her feet, "I wish we could find someplace to permanently stay."

"Me too." Elsa agreed, picking up the tent and leading Anna back into the forest. The land slowly began to change to a rocky uphill climb and both girls began to struggle with difficulty halfway up a particularly large hill. Not a word was spoken between the two as they stumbled up the hill, the snow making the ground underneath slippery and muddy. Elsa slipped and slammed herself forward into the snow, refusing to fall backwards and slide down to the bottom on her ass.

"Here." Anna said, reaching out and taking the tent back from Elsa, "Let me carry this for a while, okay?

"If you insist." Elsa grumbled, getting on her knees to try and get back up…suddenly her head whipped to the side and she narrowed her eyes…

Anna noticed Elsa's weird behavior and fell silent, watching her curiously. Whenever Elsa heard something suspicious or got that strange feeling something was wrong, Anna realized that her movements became quicker, more fluid. Elsa was so still Anna felt like hiding behind her.

"Oh my god…" Elsa mumbled, trying to get up, "Oh my god."

"What!" Anna asked, beginning to panic.

"Run!" Elsa commanded, grabbing Anna's arm and pulling her up the hill, "Just run!"

"What the he-" Anna looked behind her and witnessed something crash through the bushes and out into plain view about five meters away. At first Anna thought Elsa had heard just simple infected, but what emerged from the woods was something Anna had never seen before. It was an infected, but without arms. The skin had grown over the places where the arms were supposed to be connected to the torso and the monster had brighter more intelligent eyes than the ones that simply stumbled around. Its legs looked extremely powerful and its teeth were almost too big for its mouth, jagged and cracked, dripping with saliva and a black, sticky looking fluid, rank with the virus.

"SHIT!" Elsa hissed, pulling Anna and almost throwing her behind her, "Stay back, stay back!" The blonde pressed her back against Anna's front protectively and Anna held her left arm, desperately wishing to run.

The evolved infected turned to look at the two girls as Elsa drew her gun. Then with amazing speed, the monster began to bolt directly at the two. Anna shoved her face in Elsa's hair, clutching at her arm, and the older girl took a step back and fired. Within the time the infected had begun to run and Elsa pulled the trigger, it had passed halfway between them. The bullet had made contact with the creature's left shoulder, but that didn't stop it for an instant. It plunged on faster than before, reaching them in seconds. Anna screamed in terror. Elsa turned around and threw her arms around Anna, tackling her to the ground as the beast threw himself at the girls.

As the monster passed over Elsa and Anna, the redhead in the muddled confusion of panic, reached out and grabbed her Ak-47 that had been knocked away in the snow when Elsa had shoved her to the ground. She stumbled to her feet the same time as the monster did. Tears of fear streaming down her face, Anna clenched her teeth, looked the monster straight in the eyes as it began to run, then fired.

The gunshot rang out...

Then all faded to silence.

The creature slid limply into Anna's legs and she stumbled backwards, collapsing in the snow, the assault rifle thrown to the side. The young girl sat there quivering on the icy ground, tears of shock running down her face, the severe cold almost solidifying them on her cheeks as they rolled down passed her face and over her neck. Soft whimpers emanated from Anna and Elsa was left completely dumbstruck. Anna had managed to shoot the creature right between the eyes and the splatter of blood across the face of the hill stained the snow with a gruesome shade of red.

Elsa sat up slowly and holstered her gun, then walked over to Anna calmly and reached down to touch her shoulder. Anna had been traumatized. Between the fear the infected inflicted and what she had done both crashed down on her at the same time and it resulted with her becoming completely unresponsive.

There was nothing to be said as Elsa leaned down and picked up the rifle from the snow, brushed it off and then lifted Anna into her arms. The blonde held Anna bridal style and struggled up the hill the rest of the way carrying the tent and the rifle as well that were rested on Anna's lap. Once she reached the top, she looked behind her at the motionless creature below her, then turned her back and kept on her way. Anna shut her eyes and rested her head against Elsa's shoulder, trying to relax herself.

After a half an hour of walking, Elsa set Anna down on a small patch of wet grass and sat in front of her.

She looked Anna straight in the eye and was glad to see her green eyes looking steadily back.

"You alright?" she asked softly.

"More or less." Anna shrugged, "I guess I just got a little bit too scared."

"Well…" Elsa hunched forward and crossed her legs, "That fucker was scary. And your accuracy with that gun is definitely something to be feared."

Anna cracked a small smile and shrugged. Elsa looked behind Anna, her eyes lighting up.

"Hold on, wait right here." She said, getting to her feet and jogging away.

The redhead softly sighed and reached down to trace a small pattern in the snow. She shut her eyes a few times and shook her head, trying to rid her mind of the memory. It was still fresh. It would take time. Anna desperately wanted Elsa to pick her back up in her arms again, to hug her or something…any sort of comfort would help…

Without warning something cold, yet soft hit the back of her head. Anna turned around and pressed her hand to the back of her head, pulling off the rest of the small clumps of snow that had been splatted over her hair, looking through the trees to try and find Elsa. A small smile spread across Anna's face as she saw Elsa slowly lean out from behind a nearby tree, lob another snowball in her direction, then promptly hide behind the same tree again. the redhead got to her feet slowly and crouched down to pick up a clump of snow, fashioning it into a messy snowball due to the fact that her fingers couldn't take much of the freezing snow. She sneaked behind the tree and then jumped out in front of Elsa who smiled in slight excitement. The blonde then received a snowball to the shoulder. She retaliated with dumping armfuls of snow on Anna's head and then running off in the other direction, a hint of laughter on her voice as she called, "Let's test out your accuracy with a snowball fight ehh!"

Anna giggled and bent down to grab another handful of snow before chasing after Elsa. Elsa took cover from behind a tree while Anna took cover behind a bush. Soon the two girls were throwing snowballs at each other from behind their choices of cover. Elsa got a few shots in, hitting Anna in the chest and the shoulder, but Elsa got hit all over. She got whipped in the leg, the stomach, the chest and then the face.

As soon as the last snowball came in contact with her, Elsa laughed for the first time in years and ran towards Anna, covering her face with her arms to avoid getting yet another snowball to the face. Once she reached the laughing girl, she leaned down and picked Anna up, laughing with her and spinning her around before setting her back down in the snow. The moment Anna's feet touched the ground again, she lunged forward and tackled Elsa. As Elsa hit the ground with a thud, Anna grabbed yet another handful of snow to whitewash the blonde but was immediately taken aback.

The light in the older woman's eyes was rare. For the four days the two had been together, Anna had taken Elsa to be this rude girl with a slight, hidden soft side, but this was new. Elsa's eyes were brighter, almost bluer. Her smile made her entire face light up and her rosy cheeks added to the beauty of her features. The two were breathless as they looked at each other, Anna from above and Elsa from below. The smaller girl looked at her hand filled with snow, then back to Elsa who had reached up to place a hand on Anna's arm.

The blonde opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly became stone still. Anna became still as well and listened.

From far off, the girls heard an echoing squeal; a squeal similar to the sound that the advanced infected had blurted before charging them both. In tandem the girls untangled themselves and ran back to where they had left their things. As soon as Elsa had grabbed her backpack and Anna had grabbed her gun and the tent, they were both running, running with all of their might.

The terror increased as they heard not one, but two screams…then three screams and even more echoing off in the distance behind them, but approaching faster than they could ever hope to run. Elsa looked at Anna and saw the intense fear overcoming her. She knew that if the zombies reached them, they wouldn't have much time before they were-

Elsa's thoughts were halted as the two burst out of the forest and onto a road. Elsa's jaw dropped and Anna held back a scream of complete horror at the sight in front of them. It was filled with infected in every direction. The two had made such a racket trying to get away from the approaching threat that the infected all turned to look at them with blank, black eyes and slack jaws.

"FUCK!" Elsa screamed grabbing Anna's hand and running forward, no time to think of a plan.

"What the fuck are you-" Anna cried before her words melted into a scream as Elsa dragged her through the crowd of rotting corpses. Anna bumped cold, dead limbs and brushed against limp bodies, gasping for air as the stench of the rotting corpses filled the air.

Upon reaching the other side, having been too fast for the zombies to react to, the girls bolted off into what seemed to be a very small suburban area. There were houses upon houses in rows along a local road and the two looked around desperately for a place to hide. They continued to run as they heard the advanced infected break through the brush and begin to plow through the other infected.

"SHIT!" Elsa cried, grabbing Anna and pulling her faster. The adrenaline pumping through her veins, Elsa surged faster forward, her desire to live greater than anything she had ever felt in her life. She looked around as she ran, then saw a decently large house at the end of the street. Anna and Elsa heard the evolved infected hurling towards them, almost trip over themselves in their raw desperation to get away. The moment they reached the house, the two stumbled up the porch steps. Elsa turned around and fired at the nearest infected, hitting him right in the head. Anna bolted past her to the front door.

"It's locked!" Anna screamed, desperately pulling at the handle.

"Cover me!" Elsa demanded, pulling Anna away from the door. The advanced zombies were almost two meters away and Anna, without hesitation, lifted her gun to her shoulder and opened fire. She managed to hit two in the head but the other four weren't stopped. by simple bullets to the chest. Elsa managed to kick the door down completely and barrel inside a few steps. She ran back to Anna, grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her inside, slamming the door with both hands just as the zombies reached them.

Bodies hit the door with tremendous force and it knocked Anna way from the door so hard she tumbled forward and fell. It shook Elsa so hard her arms burned. Elsa braced the door the best she could against the monsters outside by pressing her back to the surface and using all of her leg strength to keep it shut. She looked frantically around for something to bar the door with...Anna was doing the exact same and simultaneously their eyes rested on the large couch in the corner of the room beside the front door.

Anna was on it without Elsa needing to say a word. She ran to the back of it and pushed it as hard as she could. It moved with great difficulty across the carpet, but she managed to get it near the front of the door. Elsa moved away from the door in order for Anna to push it in front of the entrance and as soon as she let go, it slammed open but hit the back of the couch so hard the bang resembled a gunshot. Elsa helped her shove the rest of the couch faster and simultaneously, they used it as leverage to slam the door shut, but in the process they crushed one of the monster's heads in between the door and the frame. Anna jumped back in horror and Elsa, not missing a beat reached down and grabbed the redhead's hand, turning and bolting through a hallway. Elsa desperately began looking for a place to hide, like a basement or a safe room. In the back of the house there was a kitchen, and to the left of it there was a laundry room. From the laundry room there was a conjoining, small hallway which lead down into a small concrete basement type area. Elsa helped Anna down the stairs halfway before running her way back up, slammed the door shut behind her and pressing her back to it...

Their frantic breathing was the only sound in the darkness, the faint slams and muffled screams of the infected outside instilling fear in the both of them.

Elsa, with shaking hands reached into her backpack and pulled out the flashlight. She hit the button and the beam flashed on, its ray shaking slightly with Elsa's hand. Anna remembered what Elsa had said from their very first day together about no crying whatsoever… but she couldn't stand it. Elsa heard soft intakes of breath from below and looked to see Anna who had leaned against the railing with her back turned, her head bowed and large tears splashed onto the stairs.

Elsa fought with herself to remain strong. After what had just happened, narrowly escaping death…how could anyone remain strong?

The blonde sighed and moved down the stairs, taking a hold of Anna's shoulder and leading her down into the small concrete room. Anna collapsed in the corner, hugging herself, hiding her head in her knees, tears streaming down her face. Elsa bit her lip and sat down beside her. She pulled out a candy bar and looked at it a moment…then held it out for the redhead.

It was a small gift, but Anna appreciated it greatly.

The young girl reached out and took it, then weakly tore the wrapper open and bit into. Anna thought she might hurl but she saw the look of satisfaction on the blonde's face and it made her feel slightly better considering their dire circumstance.

"…They're evolving." Elsa said quietly.

"Obviously." Anna said, swallowing the chocolate deeply, "We got close enough to em to see."

Elsa moved closer, "We're going to be stuck in here for a while…" she looked down at her flashlight, then to Anna, "We need to conserve power…"

"Go ahead, you can turn it off…just…" Anna began, moving closer to Elsa, "Can I sit with you? Like in your lap or something? I know it's a lot to ask, I mean…you don't like physical contact and all, but considering everything we just went through I need to know that someone's there…and maybe I can provide you with a bit of comfort…also it'll be warmer and-"

Elsa rolled her eyes, turned the flashlight off and Anna remained silent. She listened to Elsa unzip her backpack and pull out the blanket they now shared. Then she felt it being draped over her and her companion's warm body moved against hers. Elsa picked Anna up and set her down in her lap. The blonde put her arms around Anna's stomach to hold her close and Anna sighed in pleasure, leaning back on Elsa's shoulder, enjoying the warmth.

The two shut their eyes and blotted out the sounds of the monsters banging furiously on the door above, trying to rest in the cool of the basement. Both knew they wouldn't get much rest after that day, but they had the warmth of each other to lull them to a sleepy state in which Anna cuddled up and Elsa held her tighter. Both girls eventually relaxed together, numbing themselves to the screaming, pounding, and thudding from outside.


End file.
